A water park is a unique business that is attracting different amusement park owners and entrepreneurs alike. Even though it is sometimes a seasonal business, having a water park alongside your existing adventure park or even as a stand-alone can assure that you have a wide range of visitors during the peak seasons. Moreover, the advantages of starting a water park is that location is never a hindrance as you can have one located indoors, outdoors, and even both. Buying your water park equipment from trusted water park equipment manufacturers means you are assured of good workmanship and minimal maintenance.
Assuming that you already have a location in mind, the next question is, which are the best commercial water park pieces of equipment that are a crowd puller while being profitable? Don’t worry! Most people starting a water park or expanding their amusement parks to accommodate a water park are swamped by this question and how to choose a water park builder. This article will reveal all the secrets of choosing the right water park equipment and selecting the correct water park slide manufacturer.
Contents
Benefits of water parks
Modularity
Unlike an amusement park, where each ride takes up significant space, the water park equipment is modular. You can mix and match different sliders and aquatic play units to create a completely unique experience for your visitors. Moreover, you can have a common pool or a splash bowl for a couple of rides, which won’t take much space. So, as long as you can manage the piping, you can start a water park in the leftover area in your adventure with relative ease.
Low maintenance
By purchasing quality commercial water park equipment from certified water park builders, your water park requires very little maintenance. High-quality steel structures and lightweight acrylic slides are durable enough to be serviced once every year during the off-season. The maintenance cost during the off-season would be comparatively lower than calling the technician during the busy season.
Customizable
In addition to being modular, the water park equipment is available in multiple color schemes. This way, you can have them custom created to suit your theme better. Moreover, you can have your logos and branding printed on them so that the equipment can become a good source of marketing and advertisements.
People would spend more time.
When people visit an amusement park, they plan to spend an entire day enjoying the different rides. With an adjoining water park, your visitors get a chance to sample new water rides. Additionally, the extra time spent means people are more prone to buy souvenirs and food from concession stands. This means additional revenue from the water park, which balances out the investment in a short time.
Factors affecting your water park designs
Before you jump to call your contractor to get a quote to build a water park, addressing these four concerns are essential.
- Budget
Water park rides come in different sizes and shapes with appropriate costs. Additionally, you need to factor in the construction costs, documentation charges, and other miscellaneous expenses. This doesn’t mean you need to have big budgets to create a crowd puller water park. With careful planning and sitting with an architect, you can draw up a layout that keeps the visitors engaged & enjoying without breaking the bank.
- Operating Costs
Water parks require a constant water supply or a water reservoir from where the water can be circulated. Occasional maintenance and staff salary add up the operating costs.
- Land Available
Even though water parks don’t require too much land, the space available has a significant impact on the overall design. The placement of concession stands, administration buildings, pathways need to be calculated depending on the area available.
- Expectations
A water park that brings in visitors is the one that is built as per their expectations. Unlike in an adventure park, most rides in a water park depend on visitor interaction. When you have differing water rides and aquatic play units, choose those that provide a unique experience.
Based on where you stand related to these factors, your water park design will vary and so will the water park equipment you have in them.
How to choose your water park equipment?
Step 1. Conduct Competitor Analysis
As we mentioned earlier, your water park designs should accommodate things that your visitors would be expecting (or be surprised by the unexpected). It would be easy for an amusement park owner to transition the fun element from their adventure park to the water park. If you are unsure of what rides to choose, the first step would be to conduct a competitor analysis. Break your audience into smaller chunks based on the age-group and identify the rides preferred by them.
Step 2. Emphasize on Safety
Some water rides offer the thrill of life but are unsafe for children, young adults, or the elderly. Carefully study the major chunk of your visitor demographics to observe the majority. Give priority to safety and choose those rides that are suitable for the majority. While selecting a water park builder, ensure they follow all the safety guidelines and the various equipment are compliant to ASTM international standards or at least local safety codes.
The material quality brings a vast difference to the longevity of your equipment. Substandard materials are prone to break off quickly, posing a safety hazard and that run up the maintenance costs. When it comes to repairing any section, the entire section is mostly removed and replaced with a new one. The ride needs to be closed off for maintenance, causing loss of revenue, wastage of time, and operation cost spike. Since sub-par materials have a fewer life cycle, you may end up replacing sections quicker than the time taken to recover the costs from ride operation.
Step 3. Choosing the rides
As we stated earlier, a water park will attract an audience of different age groups, and based on the budget; you can have individual water rides that intrigue specific age-types. The overall breakdown of different water park attractions based on age-group would be:
- For Kids and Teens (5-16 yrs)
The rides here need to be something that the kids can operate on their own and requires minimal adult supervision. Having them in the middle of the park but away from adult rides. This checks all boxes in terms of safety and prompt response in case of any emergency.
The most common water park attractions are:
- Zero-depth pools or Floater Pools
- Waterslides
- Multi-level Aquatic Play Unit
- Kiddie Sliders
- Young Adults and Adults (17-45 yrs)
The visitors of this age group demand thrill and want rides that are adrenaline-rushing and adventurous. The attractions that draw in visitors of this age-group are:
- Wave pool
- Splash bowls
- Watercoasters
- Drop slides
- Seniors (> 46yrs)
Some people don’t necessarily want an edge-of-seat thrill but want to enjoy a calm lounge by the pool. The kinds of rides that attract this age group are:
- Kiddie Rides
- Love tunnels
- Log rides or Lazy river
- Sun deck
Step 4. Plan the other buildings (commercial and administrative) around the rides.
All it remains is to complete the water park design ready by accommodating the other important buildings such as the concession stands, pathways, restrooms, and changing rooms. Once the plan is approved and set to motion, all that remains is waiting for the opening day to welcome visitors to your new water park.
Wrapping Up
While choosing the right water park equipment, focus on creating an enjoyable experience for your visitors. Even with a limited quantity of rides, you can tempt your visitors to visit repeatedly and keep the revenue multiply year on year.
