Although little oil washed up on panama city beach tourism officials said the area had one of its worst summers on record and hopefully weekend events could make up for some serious losses

"Oh let me tell you Panama City Beach is beautiful today the water is clear and beautiful the beaches are sugar white I mean you really couldn’t ask for a better labor day weekend." Said Dan Rowe President PCB Visitors Bureau

The forecast is looking better for Panama City Beach as they are hoping Labor Day weekend brings in the flock of tourist they missed all summer.

"We are going to end up being pretty banged up for July and august so we are hoping that very hopeful that we are going to see the return of normalcy all across the board for hotels and restaurants all across the beach" Said Rowe

The city is planning a series of events to get the area back on its feet.

"Every weekend for the month of September we have something going on. this weekend it is all about labor day and spending time on the beach and getting out on the water. Next weekend we have a song writer’s festival then we roll into lobster fest. Then we have a brand new sport fishing tournament the king mackerel tournament the weekend of the 24th and 25th. Said Rowe

Local businesses say these events are bringing people back to the beach.

"The weekend festival business has been a big push and a big boom it has really helped us in these tough times so we are looking forward for more of that in September." Said Bennett

Now before the deep water horizon oil spill Panama City beach officials were expecting 2010 to be a record year...with the opening of the new northwest Florida beaches airport and the increasing popularity of Pier Park. They hope 2011 will pick up where they left off.

Labor Day marks the first holiday since the BP well has been capped also many of the hotels are reporting they are getting close to full occupancy