Held simultaneously in France and Belgium this year`s edition of the Fete du Nautisme (Water Sports Festival) saw over 500,000 visitors enjoy a range of nautical activities, from the traditional to the more…
Held simultaneously in France and Belgium this year`s edition of the Fete du Nautisme (Water Sports Festival) saw over 500,000 visitors enjoy a range of nautical activities, from the traditional to the more novel and adventurous, at more than 600 sites across France and French-speaking Belgium.
The event, which became international in 2005, is the brainchild of the two founding members of the European Confederation of Nautical Industries (ECNI), namely the French Nautical Industries Federation (FIN) and Belgium`s Nautibel.
This year, newcomers were invited to try their hand at over a dozen nautical activities, including underwater sports, light sailing, cruise yachting, canoeing, rowing, traditional boats, motorboating, jet skiing, water tourism, kitesurfing, wakeboarding, water-skiing, surfing, bodyboarding, model boats, sand yachting, angling and more.
In France, for the seventh year running, professionals and volunteers organised a weekend of varied marine activities for the benefit of thousands of enthusiastic visitors. Right across the country, the vast majority of the 500 sites participating in the event were full. All the slots available for introductory sessions were snapped up in no time, as demand far outweighed supply.
Almost 1,000 French clubs, associations and professionals in 82 departements played their part in the 2006 edition of the Festival. Many co-ordinators have already indicated they are very happy with the event.
Philippe Vallee, from Les Sables d’Olonne (85): “Visitor numbers seemed around the same as last year, but they were more evenly spread across the weekend.”
Marie-Gaelle Heu Degans, from Les Dunes de Flandre (59): “It`s been a great weekend! There have been so many people. The introductory sessions have been full throughout, and all the activities have been running perfectly.”
Gerard Bonizec, from Reunion Island (97): “In spite of the pretty poor weather, things went very well. We did about 5,000 introductory sessions at the island`s 20 sites.”
Claude Latruffe, from Les Voiles Marseillanaises (34): “We were actually overwhelmed by the numbers of visitors. There were plenty of local people and foreigners too.”
In Belgium, the 70 participating sites suffered from the less clement weather. A degree of courage was required to brave the rain. Nonetheless, there were some notable successes at this, Belgium`s second Fete du Nautisme. For example, the Rixensart Swimming Club gathered around a hundred children aged between 4 and 12 to take part in the Rixensart Challenge (swimming and life-saving competitions). There were also plenty of happy faces at the diving school Borinaqua, which organised a range of underwater activities in Quaregnon. Throughout the entire weekend, the pool was never empty. At the Parc de la Boverie, despite some gloomy weather, the rowing regatta went ahead in front of a sizeable crowd of spectators.
Altogether, large numbers of visitors came to the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, to enjoy the activities organised by an army of volunteers.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
