The queue to play on the water rollercoaster that Monday was two hours and ten minutes, indicated by the clock placed at the attraction of Thermas dos Laranjais, the largest water park in Olímpia (438 km from São Paulo).
And it will take even longer in the coming weeks, as the wait is normally up to four hours during periods of school holidays and long holidays, according to local officials.
With its thermal waters, new resorts and entertainment openings that include a wax museum, the tourist sector in Olympia expects to receive up to 750,000 tourists during the summer season, equivalent to more than 13 times its population of 55,000 inhabitants.
A tourist resort since 2014, the city in the interior of São Paulo received on average, before the pandemic, around 3 million visitors per year, a volume that is expected to double by 2024 in “Orlando Brasileira”, as the location has been called.
Only in 2021, amidst the pandemic, two new resorts emerged (Solar das Águas and Hot Beach Suites), which together have a capacity of 8,410 beds and further expanded the already large hotel network in the city, which in the state is only inferior to of the capital.
The flow of tourists at the end of the year should exceed 2019, when 350,000 visitors were registered in December, according to the Municipality of Olímpia. For January, more than 80% of the accommodation facilities already had occupancy above 60% in the last week.
Of the total number of tourists, 56% are from the capital and the metropolitan region. Eight out of ten visitors are from São Paulo, usually couples aged between 26 and 50, with children, and who spend an average of four days in the city.
They are mainly looking for fun in the thermal waters of Olímpia, in a story that began with the founding of Thermas, which has 55 attractions and has the capacity to receive 20,000 bathers a day.
In addition to the roller coaster, attractions such as the Legendary, made up of five water slides, are the park’s bet for the summer.
The Hot Beach water park has 15 attractions, swimming pools with water at a temperature of 32ºC and holds 8,000 daily visitors, a capacity that should reach 12,000 with works in progress.
The two are added to other “dry” developments that have sprung up in the city, such as the Valley of Dinosaurs, the Wax Museum and an outlet.
“We have very strong expectations, our goal is to reach at least 80% occupancy. The offer is well calibrated, it was designed four, five years ago. For new offers, there are new attractions coming. The parks also announced investments to increase their availability. audience capacity, so it is a sustainable growth”, said Rafael Almeida, founding partner of Natos Multi.
He is one of the investors of the Wax Museum, which opened with 70 life-size statues of personalities such as Gisele Bundchen, Bruce Lee, Messi, Steve Jobs and Barack Obama.
The objective is to offer tourists attractions that are not restricted to those existing in water parks and, therefore, are also open at night.
One of the sector’s bets not to lack tourists in the city is the system adopted by the enterprises. The resorts delivered in recent years are in the multi-property style, with up to 26 owners for each apartment. They know in advance which periods of the year will be available for their own use or rental, which ensures that the city is occupied year-round by visitors.
Today, there are a total of 34,000 beds divided between 8 resorts, 21 hotels, 47 inns, 2 farm hotels and 392 holiday homes. The expectation is that the city will reach around 40 thousand beds by 2025.
“We forecast 20% to 25% above 2019, in the pre-pandemic scenario, because of people’s desire to travel again, restrictions in some destinations and also the high exchange rate, which ends up interfering with it. It’s the best moment for national leisure tourism,” said Heber Garrido, commercial and marketing director of Grupo Ferrasa, which owns Hot Beach and resorts.
The Hot Beach You, which will be part of the water park complex, should be delivered in 2024 with another 800 apartments.
Other projects announced are Solar das Brisas, which began to be built at the end of last year and will have 840 apartments, with delivery forecast for 2025, and the Royal Prime, by the GR group, with 600 apartments planned for the same year.
GR, which began investing in the city in 2009 and has Wyndham Olímpia Royal Hotels, also has a prospect of more than 80% occupancy in January, according to the group’s vice president of marketing and sales, Rodolfo Rezende.
“It will be the best season of all time in the city. People have been stuck for a long time and wanting to go out and travel,” he said. Royal Prime sales started on the last 10th.
Among the future steps of the city, which in September became the first tourist district in the state, is the project to build an international airport, whose concession was authorized by the National Civil Aviation Secretariat and which depends on private investors.
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