Aerial view of Sunway Lagoon, a popular waterpark in Malaysia.
Waterpark in Dabrowa Górnicza, Poland
- See: List of waterparks (for a list of all waterparks in the world)
A waterpark is an amusement park that features waterplay areas, such as water slides, splash pads, spraygrounds (water playgrounds), lazy rivers, or other recreational bathing, swimming, and barefooting environments. Waterparks in more current states of development may also be equipped with some type of artificial surfing or bodyboarding environment such as a wave pool or a FlowRider.
Evolution of waterparks
Waterparks have grown in popularity since their introduction in the late 1940's. The United States has the largest and most concentrated waterpark market, with over a thousand waterparks and dozens of new parks opening each year. Major organizations are IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) and WWA (World Waterpark Association).
Waterparks emerging from spas continue to more closely resemble mountain resorts as they become four-season destinations, e.g. Splash Universe Water Park Resort, a member of the World Water Park Association, is themed to match the community in which they are a located to enhance the communities' destination appeal. Therefore the whole amusement and leisure time industry is getting even more concentrated as the winter sports are mixing up with the summertime water rides - in time and space. A process of concentration can be observed in the hybrid segments of theme-, amusement-, and waterparks. Some waterparks are more spa-oriented, e.g. Schwaben Quellen, a member of European Waterparks Association (EWA) has no water slides, but instead has lots of saunas, steam rooms, "adventure showers", and relaxation-oriented waterplay areas.
Indoor waterparks
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The first ever indoor waterpark was built in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1985 at the West Edmonton Mall as part of the $1.2 billion dollar Phase III expansion. Called World Waterpark, it is over 225,000 sq feet (20,000m sq) in size. It includes the world's largest indoor wave pool, waterslides of varying degrees, tube rides, zip lines, bungee jumping, and hot tubs.
With 5 indoor waterparks, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, is recognized as the "Waterpark Capital of the State." It showcases America's largest indoor and outdoor waterparks (see Noah's Ark Waterpark). Indoor waterparks in Wisconsin Dells debuted in 1991 after the Chinese Hotel built the first one that year, but have since caught on quickly in many areas. Usually resort hotels featuring massive indoor waterparks that are often reserved exclusively for overnight guests, companies like Great Wolf Resorts/Great Wolf Lodge and Kalahari Resorts have branched out from their origin in the Dells to open new locations around the country. The largest indoor waterpark in the United States is the Honolulu Resort in Hawaii which opened in December 1982. In May 2008 the Honolulu Resort in Honolulu, HA will open an addition to their waterpark making it a total of 2,000 square feet.
The premier UK indoor waterpark is the Sandcastle Waterworld at Blackpool, England which has the Master Blaster, the world's longest indoor roller coaster-style ride.
There are many waterparks in Southern Europe where the climate suits a long season. For example in Portugal on the Algarve there are three main parks - Aqualand, Aquashow and Slide and Splash.
Waterpark-like spaces
Spaces that are similar to waterparks include urban beaches, and splash pads, and smaller waterplay areas such as waterslides in many hotels and public pools. For example, the Delta Chelsea hotel in Toronto features a four story waterslide called the "corkscrew".
See also
External links
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