With recently announced plans for $300 million in new investments during the next 10 years, Dollywood Co. continues to rapidly expand both its footprint within the Great Smoky Mountains and its presence in the Southeastern U.S. The park, which opened in 1986 at the Pigeon Forge, Tenn., site originally known as Rebel Railroad, has since doubled in size to about 150 acres, adding the 35-acre Splash Country water park in the process. Most notably, Dollywood, whose plans for a Nashville theme park were recently put on hold, will add the 300-room, 100-acre DreamMore Resort adjacent to the park. That property is slated to open in 2015. Amy Owenby, Dollywood's vice president of hospitality, spoke with hotels editor Danny King.
Q: Give us a synopsis of what DreamMore will be like.
A: It'll be a mix of traditional rooms and family suites. It's about bringing families together, carving time out of the hectic schedule, and it's an extension of what Dollywood already offers. There will really be a focus on multi-generational families. And there will be special events and evening activities: things like fireworks, hayrides in the fall, sleigh rides in the winter.
Q: What kind of lodging is in the Pigeon Forge area now?
A: Well, we have the Dollywood Cabins; there are about 100 of them, ranging from two bedrooms to eight bedrooms. But the variety of hotels in that area has transitioned during the last 10 years, from mostly locally owned, nonbranded lodging to places like Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn and Comfort Suites, but even those are mostly in the 100-room scale.
There's also the Park Vista, which is a soft-branded DoubleTree, in Gatlinburg [about seven miles away]. There are two locally owned resorts: the Music Road Inn and Music Road Hotel. And in 2014, there will be a lodging facility adjacent to [Pigeon Forge's] LeConte Conference Center, and that hasn't been named yet, but it will have about 250-300 rooms.
Q: How will DreamMore be priced, and what other types of resort hotels are you looking at that may be similar to what you're trying to do?
A: We will be mid to top of the market, though for us, it's all about value: packaging with park tickets, including transportation. As for benchmarking, we're looking at more of the unique hotels that are adjacent to theme parks: places like Hershey Lodging next to Hersheypark, the new Legoland California hotel, and, of course, the Universal and Disney hotels.
Q: How will DreamMore be different from those places?
A: Some of the other places we've named, whether it be Disney or Universal or Lego, they're about fantasy, about a magical experience. Dollywood's about authenticity. It's about the Smoky Mountains, family story time. It'll be about having an authentic experience.
Q: What are your concerns, given that Dollywood Co., which signed on Gemstone Hotels & Resorts to manage the property, hasn't been in the hotel-resort business?
A: The challenges are the complexity and guest expectation. Dollywood has almost 28 years of [hospitality] experience, so it's about making sure DreamMore meets those expectations of the level of the product.
Q: There were plans for Dollywood to work with Gaylord Entertainment at developing a family-entertainment park in Nashville at the site of the former Opryland theme park. What's the status?
A: That's off the table. Since Gaylord's aligned with Marriott, there have been a lot of changes going on, so we did a pause. But we've left it open. If they want to get back to the table, that'd be great. We love Nashville. We just need for the timing to be right.
Follow Danny King on Twitter @dktravelweekly.