Paradise Coast
NEWS
C
Coming off record hotel-bed tax collections, strong summer and fall sales, SW Florida tourism bureaus and businesses see a promising season ahead. "Spending related to visitors has been up dramatically," said Jack Wert,
director of the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau. "We've been recording record
months virtually every month this year." Tamara Pigott, director of the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau
says. International visitors from England, Germany, Canada and other countries are helping drive up tourism numbers and filling hotel
rooms. "Travel is up a bit domestically but the growth you're seeing for us is more international visitors," says Pigott. "Not only do
they stay longer, but they spend more per day because of that very favorable exchange rate right now."
For the ninth consecutive year, The
Creek Course at Fiddler's Creek is
ranked among Golfweek Magazine's
Top 100 Residential Golf Courses
throughout the United States.
Designed by golf course designer
Arthur Hills, The Creek Course is
the only golf course in Southwest
Florida to earn this recognition nine
years in a row.
Positive housing news around the
state is reinforced by Bonita-based
WCI Communites report that new
home orders are up 22 percent
in the third quarter. The company
added another 600 new home
sites in Naples during the third
quarter. WCI Communities offers
amenity-rich lifestyle communities
throughout Florida.
The new housing recovery began in
Naples and moved northward with
a flurry of activity in the Corkscrew
Road-Alico Road corridor, the
Daniels Road-Colonial Boulevard
Corridor and Cape Coral, said
Randy Thibaut, president of Land
Solutions Inc.. As a result, he
thinks North Fort Myers and Port
Charlotte may be the next hot
spots in housing.
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