Billabong´s 2009 World Surfing Games to be Held In Costa Rica

Commerce set to thrive as surfing spotlight shines on Jaco

The world´s largest surfing event, The World Surfing Games (WSG), will be held in Playa Hermosa, south of Jaco, July 31st through August 9th, in front of Hotel Terraza´s Del Pacifico, a surf location infamous for it´s often times fast and enormus right break.  The WSG has been held every two years since 1977 and features national surf teams from more than 35 countries.  The Billabong sponsored competition will solidify Costa Rica as one of the worlds most prestigious surf destinations, and has the potential to flood Jaco and surrounding areas with unprecedented exposure and tourist based revenues. 

The signifcance of this event was confirmed by Jose Urena, President of the Federation of Surf of Costa Rica (FSC), who has worked dilligently since the organization’s inception in 2003 to make hosting the International Surfing Associations competition a reality.

It is the best thing that can happen to a country concerning surf for Costa Rica to obtain the World Surfing Games,  And for 80 million people around the world to see the competition on the Internet, what could be better for tourist promotion?  It will be useful to promote the country during the championship, and get the very important message out that Costa Rica in one of the world´s top 10 surfing destinations,” declared Urena. 

The Municipality of Jaco is expected to launch  a campaign called ¨Jaco Land of Adventures and Surf”  in order to capitalize on the WSG, considered the Olympics of surfing, and take the Gold straight to the bank.

Currently, surfing represents twenty percent of annual income for Costa Rica, according to the countries Institute of Tourism (ICT), and this can only be expected to increse as the nine day live-Internet broadcast reaches millions of potential visitors in multiple languages.  Jaco´s business owners can prepare for record breaking revenues as thousands of surf fans from around the globe visit the event, which  has the formula for generating a million dollars in commerce.

Several other countries were considered for the event, including front-runners Brazil and South Africa, but Costa Rica has been handed the torch due to the persistence and dedication of The FSC to attend all worldwide commitments with a full National Costa Rican Surf Team and staff, as well as the accesible Central American location, which will hopefully attract more delegations of the Americas, 

“I believe it is Vital to provide a platform for these emerging surf regions”, affirmed Graham Stapleberg, Vice-President of Billabong Marketing.  “It is the only event of it´s kind where you get large representation of so many different surf nations.¨

It is the most significant sporting event ever to swell on to Costa Rican sands.  There will be parades, walking on water by surfing’s best athelets, and festive ceremonies to captivate all.  The stage is set, the spotlight will be shining brightly, what remains is Jaco stepping up to the podium and representing the entire country proudly in every aspect.