UPDATE** – Event dates have been announced: November 17-27 2011
The International Sand Sculpting Competition is coming to Southwest Florida. Fort Myers Beach is already the home to the American Sand Sculpting Festival, which draws tens of thousands of people every year.
To travelers from all around the globe, Fort Myers Beach has world class sand. “The beaches of England are quite rubbish and they don’t have many shells. So I was expecting it to be a little like England, but its not. It’s much better,” said Caitlin Devereaux, who is visiting Fort Myers Beach from England.
In fact it’s so much better that a stretch of Fort Myers Beach will be the home of the 2011 World Championship of Sand Sculpting. Works of art will be on display right behind the Holiday Inn, bringing in at least 60 international artists to the fierce competition. “It’s the Super Bowl of sand sculpting; and the fact that we can bring it into this area and put the focus on it – it’s going to benefit the businesses and the community as a whole,” said event organizer Jason Camp.
The event is expected to bring out hundreds of thousands of people to Fort Myers Beach, pumping millions of dollars into the economy. And if it’s proven to be a success, event organizers say it’ll come back in the years to come. And business owners on the beach are hoping that’s the case. The event takes place right at the start of tourism season here in Southwest Florida, at a time when business is kind of slow.
They say it’s a great event to catapult the tourism industry while showing an international audience what Southwest Florida has to offer. “It’s a great spot, great sand, and we’re excited to bring them in November,” Camp said. The 10 day event will kick off in mid-November.
Source: nbc-2.com
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