The best young volleyball players in the world will be converging on Horseshoe Bay next month as Bermuda finally takes advantage of its superb beach facilities.

The Swatch World Under-19 Championships will be contested on the postcard-famous pink sands from September 6-10, with up to 1,500 spectators in place on bleachers around the showcourt.

The event, previously staged in France, Italy, Thailand and Greece, will attract some of the top young players from countries as diverse as Austria, New Zealand, Israel, Poland, Greece, Kazakhstan, Venezuela and Finland in both men?s and women?s competitions.

And the event, sponsored by the Bermuda Department of Tourism, is being hailed by Government as the first of many new, international initiatives to drive tourists to the Island through natural attractions.

?This is a very exciting event,? said Roddy Carr, the Department of Tourism?s consultant who works at IMG, the world?s largest sports marketing firm.

?This is going to be the first step for us in a series of high-profile, international events. Bermuda has enormous potential for major sports events and we are looking at announcing an exciting programme of events later in the year which include some more high-profile events.

?Golf and beach games in general are two areas where we are looking to work to bring on big events which will benefit Bermuda both in terms of numbers of visitors and television exposure.

?This is an important area for tourism and Bermuda has great potential for these type of events.?

This event alone is expected to attract around 500 visitors to the Island, just in terms of athletes, friends and family, officials, administrators and sponsors although Carr is promising larger events in the future.

?This is the first of a number of events we have planned,? he continued.

?I expect there to be an announcement of the calendar for 2007 and 2008 at some point later in the year. We are hoping to be able to announce some big events, including some which could give significant television exposure to Bermuda.?

Next month?s tournament will see seven outer courts laid out on Horseshoe Bay as well as a centre court featuring seating for up to 1,500 people.

The four-day volleyball festival will see play start at 2 p.m. every day with the semi-finals and finals to be played on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

The men?s event features 18 pairs with 16 pairs taking part in the women?s event.

The world championship event is likely to attract large numbers of spectators with many of the hundreds of beach vollyeball players who fill Elbow and Horseshoe beaches in the evenings and the weekends in the summer expected to come out and see the sport played at the highest level.