Estudio De Factibilidad De Un Parque Acuatico

THE FEASIBILITY STUDY
FOR OUTDOOR WATER PARKS
By: William L. Haralson

There is general agreement that the water park development process begins with the preparation of a market and financial feasibility study. So, what is a feasibility study and what is intended to accomplish?

First, let us define the term, feasibility. The dictionary defines feasible to mean doable. Given thisdefinition, then, feasibility can refer to many issues. Not only can feasibility refer to market and financial feasibility, it can also refer to a variety of other issues, such as political feasibility, physical feasibility, etc. The one factor that all of these various types of feasibility have in common is that a project must be feasible in every respect in order for a project to be successful.However, in this discussion, we are only concerned with one type of feasibility: market and financial feasibility.

So what is the feasibility study supposed to accomplish? Basically, the feasibility study should address two major issues: (1) what is the attendance potential of a proposed water park; and (2) what is its likely financial performance. The first issue is addressed in the marketstudy segment of the feasibility study, while the second issue is addressed in the financial analysis.

THE MARKET STUDY
The market study focuses on the attendance potential of the proposed water park. It has two objectives: (1) to derive physical planning parameters for the park; and (2) to provide a major factor that forms the basis for revenue projections in the financial analysis.Key factors to be evaluated in the market study are as follows:


• Site features
• Demographics
• The tourist market
• Competition
• Weather
• The school year schedule


The factors are discussed in turn below.

Site Features
There are a number of sitefeatures that need to be evaluated in assessing the suitability of a site for a water park.

Purchase Price: Relative to other land uses, such as retail, offices and hotels, water parks do not rank as one of the highest and best uses of real estate. Consequently, the search for a suitable site for a water park should not include what would considered prime sites. Water parks cannot competewith most commercial uses, nor should they. As will be noted below, site prerequisites for water parks do not require prime sites.


Site Size And Configuration: The amount of land required to accommodate the park core, parking lot and support facilities will depend on the scale of park development envisioned. Commercial water parks require a site in the range of 12 to 20 acres, whilepublic facilities (municipal, county or state) require smaller sites, perhaps in the range of 5 to 10 acres. In any event, the feasibility study should provide general guidelines regarding acreage requirements. Regarding configuration, a square parcel is preferable to an elongated rectangle.

Access, Ingress And Egress: Good regional access is a prerequisite for a water park. Proximity to amajor thoroughfare is highly desirable. By contrast, superior ingress and egress are not a high priority, if these affect the purchase price. For example, if two sites have freeway frontage but one is located at the base of an exit ramp, while the second is located 1,000 feet from the exit ramp, the second site is likely to be preferable since it will probably have a lower purchase price.Visibility: Visibility is desirable but not mandatory. Research has proven that people do not visit water parks on impulse; rather, they know beforehand that they are going to attend a water park. The advantage to having good visibility from a major thoroughfare is increased public awareness. Parks without good visibility are usually required to spend extra marketing dollars to achieve public...