How to start a water park in India

To start a water park in India, begin with the site and the audience, then test the numbers, design the park as a whole and plan how it will run safely. A water park has features a dry park does not, such as water supply, treatment and slides, so the early planning matters even more.

This guide covers the sequence at the level of what each step is for. The detailed method is part of Mast Parks' professional practice and is not published here.

A water park is not right for every site. A feasibility study studies the space, the location and the target audience, then determines whether a water park is the most suitable concept for the area, or whether a different park would serve better.

Climate matters in India. A water park has a season, and the study looks at how the park will earn across the year. Some owners add dry attractions, events or an indoor area so the park has more to offer when the weather is cooler. See indoor water parks.

Financial planning analyses pocket size, investment and potential returns, with the focus on ROI. For a water park, the plan also has to look at the cost of running the park, because water, power and treatment are continuing costs and not one-time ones.

Owners who plan only the construction cost are often surprised by running costs. A good plan counts both, so the park is designed to be affordable to run as well as to build. See water park business plan.

Water parks range from small family parks to large destination parks, and some sit inside a larger park. The right size and mix depend on the audience. Concept creation gives the park its idea and theme development can give it a story if the owner chooses one.

A water park with a clear idea is easier to market and easier to remember. Without one, it competes on slides alone. See water park design.

Master planning shows where the pools, slides, queues, rest areas, changing areas, food and entry sit, and how guests move between them. Architectural designing then produces construction drawings, and the plan accounts for the back-of-house systems that keep a water park running.

Water parks reward careful layout. Queues that spill into walkways, rest areas far from the water and changing areas far from the entry all show up as complaints. A plan that places them well makes the park comfortable on a busy day.

Slides, wave pools, lazy rivers and play areas serve different guests. Families with young children need shallow play areas and shade. Teenagers want thrill. The mix is chosen to match the audience the study identified. See water park rides.

A water park carries safety duties that a dry park does not, from supervision to water quality. These are planned from the start, not added after the build. Operations planning and team hiring and training set the staff, the procedures and the practices before the gates open.

Several authorities approve each area of safety and land development, including sustainability. The National Building Code of India sets the local laws and standards.

Marketing and branding, merchandising and content and events bring guests in. A water park benefits from planning marketing around its busy season and from building reasons to visit beyond the slides.

Three things catch new water park owners out. The first is the back of the park: the systems that supply, circulate and treat the water take space and money, and they decide whether the park can open and stay open. The second is the number of staff a water park needs to supervise safely on a busy day. The third is weather, because a park that depends on a few hot months has less room for error.

Planning for these at the start makes the park cheaper to run and safer to operate, because the decisions were made when changing them was still free.

A water park earns most from guests who return. Return visits come from a clean, safe and comfortable park, from reasons to visit beyond the slides and from marketing that reminds guests the park exists. Food, shaded rest areas, events and merchandise all contribute, and each is easier to get right when planned with the park and not added later.

See how theme parks make money and how to market a theme park for the wider picture.

A water park is a bigger commitment to infrastructure than most other park types. The water systems, the pools and the slides are fixed once built, and changing them later is costly. That makes the early choices of site, size and concept more important than in a park that can be rearranged ride by ride.

It also makes staging worth considering. Some owners open a smaller first phase and add attractions as the park finds its guests, provided the master plan has left room for the later phases. The feasibility study and the master plan are where that choice is made.

The cost of a park depends on the project and the effort it needs: the park type, the size of the site and the services chosen. It is not a fixed number, and a figure quoted without knowing the site would mislead. Mast Parks scopes each project with the owner, so the owner pays for the work that project needs.

See water park project cost in India for the factors that matter, at the level of what they are rather than the figures.

How long a park takes depends on the project: the size of the site, the park type and the scope of the work. Mast Parks agrees a timeline with each owner at the start, so the owner can plan funding, approvals and the opening around it.

• Counting construction cost and forgetting running cost.
• Choosing slides before studying the audience.
• Ignoring the season and having nothing for the cooler months.
• Leaving safety planning and staff training to the end.
• Placing queues, rest areas and changing areas as an afterthought.

Fun World. The park was re-themed so its amusement park, water park, aquarium and snow park sit under one theme, with new merchandising options and a dark ride. See the project.

A Mast water park in Rajasthan. An indoor water park with an integrated amusement park, designed to give guests shelter from the heat. Mast Parks handled theming, naming, master planning, architectural design, project management, operations, hiring and training. See the project.

An amusement park project. Mast Parks proposed and designed the amusement park around an existing food park factory, including master planning, architectural drawings, thematic design and attraction design with dark rides, and provided project management consultancy with on-site personnel. One amusement park project.

To begin with the feasibility question, see water park design or the contact page.