International visitor interest in Southwest Florida increases

In the downtown area of Naples, Florida, there’s a more international feel lately. From hotel registration desks to the trendy shops on Fifth Avenue South, you can hear accents that are decidedly not American.

Collier County, where Naples is located, has been experiencing a surge in visitors from Europe this year, at least partly due to the favorable exchange rate of the euro to the U.S. dollar that has made Naples and the rest of the Paradise Coast a bargain.

The county has also focused more of its advertising dollars on international markets.

Naples merchants have reported an increased of German-speaking tourists since July, even with the strengthening of the dollar, commented Jack Wert, who is the executive director of the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Key feeder markets for the Paradise Coast are the UK and Germany.

“We are indeed hearing a lot of foreign accents and value our tourists, as we do our locals,” noted Sheryl Sashin, the owner of a gift and stationery store in downtown Naples, called Arabesque.

She added that in tough economic times it’s helpful to see the additional numbers of visitors coming through her door.

“We’ve always had a lot of foreign tourists,” Sashin said. “But we have noticed more English accents in the last year than we have in years past.”

Thanks to www.naplesnews.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.paradisecoast.com