By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The indoor water park resort that could land at Paramount's Kings Island's campground would mean big business for Warren County.

Travel specialists say the estimated half-million annual visitors to the proposed Great Wolf Lodge Family Resort would have a dramatic economic impact, as those visitors are likely to spend dollars at other restaurants, businesses and attractions in the area.

The Wisconsin-based company that's proposing the resort is compiling an economic impact study, but local officials are betting that a year-round attraction in an area with so many seasonal businesses is sure to help the overall economy.

That's key for Warren County, where tourism is the largest industry, bringing in about $410 million to the economy each year.

"Ohio overall is thought of as a summertime destination," says Marc McQuaid, executive director of the Ohio Travel Association. "If people visit Kings Island in the summertime and see there's another attraction to come back to in the wintertime, that's fantastic. ... Warren County already has that to some extent, but I think (the indoor watermark resort) is a nice complement."

Great Lakes Companies Inc. is negotiating with Kings Island to build a $60 million family resort on its campground. That piece of property, just north of the theme park, is part of the property that Kings Island wants Mason to annex from Deerfield Township.

The woodland lodge-themed Great Wolf is likely to include a 300-room hotel, a conference center for up to 1,200 people and a year-round, indoor water park spanning close to 90,000 square feet.

Great Lakes spokesman Eric Lund estimated about 500,000 guests would visit a year, and the resort would employ nearly 350 people.

The resort would be the fourth of its kind in Ohio. Great Lakes owns Great Bear Lodge in Sandusky, and Cedar Point is remodeling its existing Radisson Harbour Inn into Castaway Bay, which should open in November.

An African village-themed resort, the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center, broke ground this month in Sandusky and is expected to open in May 2005.

Such indoor resorts started sprouting up about 10 years ago in Wisconsin Dells. Industry analysts say there are now more than 60 nationwide, including in Minnesota, Kansas and Michigan.

The resorts often have larger, family suites. At Great Bear, for example, the nightly room rates range from $259 to $369, depending on size (typically four to eight people) and extras. The price includes admission to the water park.

"It has indeed proven very successful," said Beth Robertson, spokeswoman for International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. "The bottom line is that you're creating an opportunity for families to have multiple things to do in one location."

They also affect the number of off-season visitors. After Great Bear Lodge opened in Sandusky in 2001, the Sandusky/Erie County Visitors & Convention Bureau, which gets its funding from a 1 percent hotel tax, saw a 23 percent jump in its budget, according to the Executive Director Joan Van Offeren.

Several restaurants and businesses there post signs welcoming Great Bear guests, who can be identified by the wristbands they wear to show they are staying at the resort. One breakfast place even moved a half-mile down the road to be closer to the resort.

"We come in and we complement the market by bringing year-round tourism," Great Lakes' Lund said. "We work with all the hotels, restaurants and amenities to bring more people into the county to make it an entertainment destination."

That's what Shirley Bonekemper, executive director of the Warren County Convention and Visitors Bureau, is hoping for here.

Many of the county's 6.5 million annual visitors come during the warmer months, when attractions like Kings Island and The Beach Waterpark are open. Occupancy at the county's 30-plus hotels drops from September to May, she said.

Year-round attractions will "give us more to sell and give the consumer another reason to come back," she said.

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com