PHOTOS: Island sand draws a crowd over holiday weekend — visitors from all over throng Marco beaches

For the off season, there were a lot of people on the beach. Amid continuing worries about what the Gulf oil spill, both the reality and the perception, will mean for the local tourism industry, Marco Island beaches were packed for the Fourth of July.

Even on a somewhat gloomy weekend, with intermittent showers and a persistent overcast, couples and families were out in force, staking out their piece of the strand.

A significant number of those beachgoers were tourists. An informal sampling of those strolling, sunbathing, and splashing at Tigertail and along hotel/condo row on south Collier found visitors from New York, Chicago, California, England, Scotland, and Poland, in addition to many from other areas of the Sunshine State.

Julian and Mary Puczyniec and their children traveled from London to rendezvous with friends and enjoy some time in the sun.

“We had big-time worries” about the prospect of being greeted by an oil-soaked beach, said Julian, but they were delighted with what they found at Tigertail.

“Our issue was, we booked in December, so we were locked in,” he said. Research on the Internet allayed their fears.

“My husband called some fishing guides,” said Ingrid Cobb of Manhattan Beach, California, “so we knew it was okay. The shelling was fabulous, and we found one of those dollar things,” she said, displaying a sand dollar.

Another UK visitor, Caroline McLatchie of Glasgow, also used inside information. She and her friends were staying at her sister’s villa, and she knew the Marco beaches were pristine.

There had, she said, been a great deal of news coverage on the spill back home. “BP has got to get it cleaned up. It’s a terrible thing, but the beach here is lovely.”

Where some visitors from out of state or other countries said they had needed a lot of convincing a Gulf of Mexico beach could be suitable for a holiday trip after the images they had seen on TV, in-state tourists seemed to have no trouble grasping the difference between Southwest Florida and the Panhandle.

Winston Peart and his wife brought their family of five over from Fort Lauderdale for the long weekend. “This is our first time coming to Marco Island,” said Peart. “We like it – it’s quiet and nice. We know the spill is all up in northwest Florida.”

Travis Hadder came to Marco directly from the oil-spill war zone. A resident of Pensacola, he was in town for the Florida Pharmacy Association convention.

“Tourism is dead right now in Pensacola,” he said. “It’s changed our environment for sure.” He is also worried about the health of the fishing industry, not to mention the health of the fish. “During red snapper season, we had to catch and throw back,” Hadder said. “You know you’re throwing them back to their death.” He and his wife, he said, make a point of patronizing waterfront restaurants at home, places that have been hard-hit by the spill.

That was also the motivation for Jose Azout and his family to choose Marco Island for their vacation. “We wanted to support the west coast,” said Azout. “We know people are staying away.” With his wife Clara and their three children, he sat at the water’s edge working on a sandcastle and dug in the sand to emphasize how clean the beach is.

“This is beautiful,” he said. “There’s a lot of bad press. They’re scaring people away from all over the world. The news should be more specific.”

Mac Chaudhry, general manager of the Hilton Marco Island Beach Resort & Spa, reported strong sales for the Fourth of July holiday, even with a question mark hanging over longterm prospects.

“We are sold out over this weekend,” he said, “but the negative media coverage of oil spill has impacted the call volume for future bookings. Our inquiries are 10-15 percent down compared to last year in May and June.” To put visitors at ease, said Chaudhry, the hotel is offering a flexible cancellation policy.

Malki Shabtai, manager of Beach Unlimited, reported an even steeper drop-off. “We’re down more than 50 percent from the same week last year,” he said. “We have people who come here every year, and said they don’t want to come and get oil on their feet.”

Fifty percent is also the discount the tourist-oriented store is offering on many items to keep the cash registers ringing, with specials like three kids’ t-shirts or three beach towels for $10.

The lowest percentage, though, could be good news for Marco Island and Southwest Florida. A new computer-modeled study released by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, indicates a less than one percent chance for oil from the spill impacting our area, by far the lowest in the state, including the Atlantic side. Areas further up the west coast have a 20 percent chance of visible pollution, and Miami and the Keys show an 80 percent probability.

While there is nothing good about the spill, Collier County is blessed with the best possible chance to keep our coastline clean.

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