Tennis coach looking for Swedish sister city for FWB
FORT WALTON BEACH - While an official sister-city relationship likely is still a ways off, efforts continue to develop partnerships between the city and a similar town in Sweden.
Erik Stenberg, director of the Fort Walton Beach Tennis Center and a native Swede, continues to work on developing the sister-city relationship between his hometown of Kristinehamn and his adopted home of Fort Walton Beach.
"I truly believe there's been a lot of good progress," Stenberg said. "We're still in the exploratory phase."
He recently updated the City Council on the status of the sister city relationship.
Stenberg returned recently from Kristinehamn, where he organized the inaugural Rolls-Royce Women's Cup tennis tournament. The tournament was set up to be a sister tournament to the USTA $25,000 Women's Challenger tourney Stenberg hosts at the Tennis Center each year.
During the Swedish tournament, a delegation of 14 business and tourism representatives from Northwest Florida flew to Kristinehamn to meet with their foreign counterparts.
Stenberg, who initiated the sistercity project, said the equivalent of the chamber of commerce and economic development council in Kristinehamn have taken over and are continuing to work on their side of the project.
The University of West Florida is in talks with the university near Kristinehamn to start a student-exchange program.
Stenberg also said some Swedish companies are considering locating in Northwest Florida because they can save money with the low value of the dollar.
Stenberg is planning a Swedish-American business conference next March to coincide with next year's USTA Women's Challenger tournament.