“I mean from all over the world, we have Hong Kong and Croatia and France and Italy," says Paulette Kluge.
The Youth Sailing World Championships are a once in a lifetime opportunity for Corpus Christi.
“It’s really the best sailors in the world are right here in Corpus Christi,” says Kluge.
Paulette Kluge, the CEO of the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau says the competition is putting the city on the map.
“We have the beach and you can put the boat in and our wind is great,” says Kluge.
It’s also boosting the local economy.
“We were conservative knowing the number of people that would come, the number of countries that would be represented,” says Kluge. “We estimated the economic impact to be a little over $900,000.”
The money stems from sponsorships and the spending from the teens.
“They do have to eat, so they’re exploring when they need to,” says Kluge.
“They’ve been having a great time at our place,” says Richard Lomax.
Waterstreet Restaurant vice president Richard Lomax says they have seen an increase in sales.
“We’ve been busy and flinging out a lot of hamburgers," says Lomax. “We saw the Mexico team, the Argentina team.”
Lomax says after a devastating hurricane, this is just what the city needs.
“It kind of wakes everyone up and we start getting aggressive again and doing all these things," says Lomax.
To get the city back to feeling like home.
“The nation flags, along that beautiful new park, and all those boats lined up it just feels like the coast,” says Lomax.
