Some Changes Coming in 2019 for Holiday World & Splashin' Safari

WITZ Radio News is an affiliate of Network Indiana 

SANTA CLAUS -- On your next visit to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari in 2019, you may notice several changes and new additions to the amusement park.

Matt Eckert, President and CEO, tells Inside Indiana Business that the company is investing $5.5 million into the park, including the addition of "Santa's Merry Marketplace" that will convent the park's main restaurant into five different restaurants that include a candy store, coffee shop and bakery. Eckert says construction of the new marketplace is an effort to bring more of a spotlight to the park's original Christmas theme.

Holiday World and Splashin' Safari first opened in 1946 as "Santa Claus Land."

Eckert also says the park will make improvements to The Voyage, one of the world's largest wooden roller coasters.

Eckert says Holiday World brings in about one million people a year, which means there is a need for new hotels in Santa Claus, which is where the park is located.

"If anyone is interested in building a hotel or lodging of any kind, that's the place to do it, because it's a prime market," Eckert says.