We’ve Been Winning Big!

We’re extremely proud of our team and our resort! Lately, some of our top leaders and our resort have been earning some special kudos and we wanted to share this great news with all of you.

First, Pete Tennis, our resort’s Managing Director, was recently named the Sevier County Hospitality and Travel Association’s Lodging General Manager of the Year (Sevierville). This award recognizes a general manager who has demonstrated outstanding contributions of leadership, service, and community and/or civic affairs. The nominees are judged on outstanding performance that goes above and beyond normal job responsibilities, including providing excellent service to the property and guest.

Pete has been with our parent company, Wilderness Resorts and Waterparks, for 29 years. He got his start in the hospitality industry at our sister property, Wilderness Resort, in Wisconsin Dells. There, he held a variety of management roles including Housekeeping Director, Assistant General Manager and General Manager, before he relocated to Tennessee in 2019 to assume the Managing Director position for our resort. We’re glad he’s become a Tennessean!

Next, the World Waterpark Association (WWA) recently presented our resort with some honors at their WWA Show Opening General Session. Our resort (together with our partners Architectural Design Consultants, Inc., Aquatic Development Group, Moment Factory and WhiteWater) received a WWA Leading Edge Award for the creativity and theming shown in our 2024 waterpark expansion. We are grateful to our partners for putting their best work forward on our expansion. We appreciate their creativity and passion for what they do!

Then, our assistant general manager, Chase Singleton was presented with the WWA Executive Board Award for his exceptional accomplishments in the waterpark industry. Chase has served on WWA Safety Committee since 2017 and has been the secretary of the committee since 2022. He regularly contributes content to the WWA magazine and is very active within his committee to ensure membership waterparks around the world have access to industry best practices on safety. Chase has been with Wilderness at the Smokies over thirteen years serving in various leadership roles including Waterpark Manager, Safety and Risk Manager and most recently, Assistant General Manager.

Finally, our resort and our sister property, Soaky Mountain Waterpark across the street from us, each received WWA Wave Review Awards, which recognize the best marketing materials in the industry. We received our award for our TV commercial announcing the completion of our expansion and Soaky Mountain received their award for their billboard announcing the season.