photography by lila photo
(Left) The International Polo Club team celebrates their Providencia Award win. (Right) CVB President Jorge Pesquera with IPC President John Wash.
IPC Wins Providencia Award After Successful 10th Season The International Polo Club Palm Beach’s 10th anniversary season was a success from start to finish — and that success even extended beyond the traditional winter polo season when IPC claimed the county’s top tourism honor in May.
In May, with the season complete, the Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) awarded the prestigious 2013 Providencia Award to IPC, based on the club’s significant and substantial impact on Palm Beach County tourism.
The season kicked off in January on a perfect opening day when Ms. Perfect 10 herself, the still-smashing Bo Derek, tossed the first coin. She created just the kind of buzz that IPC was hoping would bring back loyal polo fans and attract new ones.
In other words, polo — and the International Polo Club, in particular — was being recognized, finally, as a big-time draw for visitors.
Record crowds turned out on that Sunday and the 15 to follow. Fans gleefully stomped divots into flat submission during halftime, sipping and socializing under blue skies as IPC served up the best polo on the planet. IPC played host to the “triple crown” of American polo — the three highestrated polo tournaments on the continent: the USPA C.V. Whitney Cup, the Piaget USPA Gold Cup and the USPA Maserati 109th U.S. Open Polo Championship. The action thrilled fans, thanks in no small part to the world-class skill level of the players. All eight of the world’s 10-goal players, the elite of the elite, brought their talents to Wellington this season. Could things get any better? Well, yes.
“Our 10th anniversary season broke all records,” IPC President John Wash said. “Winning the Providencia Award makes the season all the more perfect. We thank everyone for their support.” Across the polo world, IPC is considered to be the finest, most wellequipped polo facility. Spectators come from around the globe, representing numerous countries in Europe and South America, as well as South Africa, Canada and the United States, and exceed 150,000 annually. Many of the spectators stay in Palm Beach County for all or part of the winter polo season. Fittingly, the honor was awarded to Wash before a sellout crowd of tourism and hospitality leaders during the annual Tourism Day luncheon. The luncheon is part of National Travel & Tourism Week, a campaign of the U.S. Travel Association aimed at generating
awareness of the economic importance of travel and tourism. The CVB’s Providencia Committee chose the International Polo Club as one of three finalists. This year’s runners-up included the Honda Classic and Lynn University, host of one of the 2012 presidential debates. Other nominees included the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative, the Palm Beach International Boat Show, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Equestrian Sport Productions CEO Mark Bellissimo, the Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival and the Palm Beach International Raceway. “The Providencia Award is Palm Beach County’s most important symbol of recognition for the local tourism industry,” CVB President & CEO Jorge Pesquera said at the awards luncheon. “In 2013, Palm Beach County’s tourism industry will generate more than $5 billion for the local economy, recording triple growth over the past three decades. It is a truly incredible sign of our industry’s resilience that we have made a full recovery after some challenging economic times, and are close to our all-time peaks in virtually every tourism performance category.” For more on the International Polo Club Palm Beach, visit www.internationalpoloclub. com. For more about the Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau, visit www. palmbeachfl.com. |wellington the magazine| June 2013
35