The campground market is booming and competition is fierce. If you target families, be sure to know that pools and water slides are key factors in the family decision making process whether to book a certain campground or not.

Obviously there are huge differences between various campgrounds, the demographics they are targeting, the geographical locations and the vision (and budget) of the owners. However, most campgrounds do have a pool at this moment. In order to stay relevant and supply great experiences to different guests groups it can be a smart idea to start looking into upgrading and expanding your pool. The example below outlines a phased process of upgrading and expanding a campground pool into a small waterpark.

The pool you can see in the image above is situated at an expanding campground focusing on rental chalets and glamping tents. The current pool offers two pools, a splash zone for toddlers and two small family slides.

Attraction selection

After analyzing the current situation, doing market research and looking at the guest demographics it becomes clear that:

• on busy days the pool and attractions capacity isn’t high enough.
• the slide offering is outdated and doesn’t make this campground stand out in the market.
• looking at the guest demographics and preferences it becomes clear that there is room for family attractions that offer new and shared experiences, dedicated slides for younger guests (the 2-7 category) and an aquatic play structure for older kids (ages 7-15) offering a wide range of aquatic play experiences .
• expanding the pool area will make guests stay longer and in order to keep them satisfied and happy it might be wise to offer F&B in the pool area. This also creates additional revenues for the campground owners.

Master Planning

The intention of a creating a concept master plan is to provide a starting point for the expansion of your pool area, transforming it into a waterpark. It shows a complete layout and establishes the most effective relationships among the key elements of the program – attractions, pools, services, amenities and features – recognizing the primary elements of context, atmosphere and circulation, as well as any site specific features like vegetation incorporated in the plan.

Phasing

The phase 1 expansion attraction adds a high capacity (THRC: 1200 guests per hour) ride experience where guests can race side-by-side in 2 person tubes. And all of that on a relatively small footprint. By adding the ride here the investment for phase 1 is limited to the ride and a small lounging plaza.

Phase 2 adds an iconic FlyingSAUCER tubing ride (by ProSlide Technology Inc.), together with a new leisure pool which is surrounded by plenty of lounging space. As a finishing touch the leisure pool has a swim-up bar, which will boost in-park spending on food and beverages. Next to that there is also a small splash pad area together with another F&B unit and a large patio.

Phase 3 (image below) adds an elaborate kids zone with 4 high capacity kids slides, a shallow toddler play pool and an aquatic play structure, turning this into a high powered kids area. It is situated in the back of the expansion area and combines various different attractions, lounging, food and beverages and washrooms together, making sure your guests can basically stay here the whole day!

The back of house area serves as a technical and mechanical space together with an supply access for the swim-up bar.

Capacity

In the existing situation the pool has a capacity of about 450 people a day. The owner of the campsite recognizes the fact that during peak season, this is not enough, and he estimates he needs at least double of that.

The capacity of the built out expansion, including all phases, will raise the capacity to over 1200 guests a day.

Conclusion

In short: the capacity gets boosted to a stunning 1200 guests a day, offering every guest an enjoyable stay. New attractions are added suiting various guest demographics and making the campground stand out in the market. By phasing the expansion you can spread the investment needed. By providing F&B in-park spending will go up. The final image also shows lots of new lounging space and a nicely landscaped site with mature trees providing shade and a nice atmosphere.

If you need help with your campground or if you have questions: you can always reach out to B&Eau!