Indoor waterparks

An indoor water park is a type of water park that is located inside a building. An indoor water park has the ability to stay open year-round, as it is not affected by weather conditions.

The first indoor water park was built in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1985 at the West Edmonton Mall. It is called the World Waterpark and is over 200,000 sq ft (19,000 m²). It was a success for the mall. The first indoor water park in Europe was built in Blackpool in 1986. It is called the Sandcastle Water Park (Blackpool). The first indoor water park in the U.S. was built in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin at the Polynesian Hotel. It was built in 1994 in an effort to make the Dells a year-round tourist destination, rather than just a summer one.

Since the opening of the first park, the indoor water park business has become increasingly popular, especially for the Edmonton area in Canada, and in the Wisconsin Dells in the U.S., which proclaims itself as the "Water Park Capital of the World". The Dells has five Water park resorts that have at least one water park bigger than 55,000 sq ft (5,100 m²). This includes Great Wolf Lodge, Kalahari (Wisconsin's Largest Indoor Water Park), Chula Vista Resort (Lost Rios), Wilderness Territory (Wild West, Klondike Kavern, Wild WaterDome), and the Hotel Rome at Mt. Olympus. Wisconsin has the most indoor water parks in one state. Other states in the U.S., especially in the midwest, are building more indoor water parks separate or to existing hotels so they can become a year-round destination. More water parks are also being built in Canada, Europe and Asia. Tropical Islands Resort (Krausnick-Groß Wasserburg, Germany) with an area of 66,000 m² (710,000 sq feet) is currently the largest indoor water park in the world.

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