With tourism numbers setting all-time highs on Pleasure Island, one of the forces driving those numbers has to be the influx of youth sports tournament sports in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores.

Mayor Tony Kennon of Orange Beach hopes that is a trend that continues.

“We want to be known as the youth sports capital of the world,” Kennon said. “It’s the perfect market. It is families. They spend money, they don’t cause any trouble.”

According to data released today by Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism (CVB), Alabama’s beaches gathered $54.7 million in lodging revenue during June 2011.

This figure represents an 8.4 percent ($4.2 million) increase over June 2007 ($50.4 million), which is the previous benchmark year. July numbers will be out in a few weeks and officials are anticipating more record numbers. Residents in the area also noticed a sharp increase in traffic during the peak times.

With that in mind, Kennon recently met with Alabama Department of Transportation Director John Cooper to see about having a traffic light placed on Canal Road.

He found Cooper quite cooperative.

“They are really trying to help us,” Kennon said. “Before it was always ‘no, what is the question?’ Now it is ‘hey we can work around that.’ They are now going to move that red-light from the east Wharf entrance to the Sportsplex.”

City officials believe that will help break up traffic during tournaments at the facility. Parks and Recreation Superintendent Danny Martin hopes the light is moved soon.

“I hope that light’s installed by sometime in September because we can put it to good use. We have a 120-team soccer tournament, the Flora-Bama Classic, coming up at that time. And then in November we also have the SEC tournament.”

Another huge tournament, the Alabama Soccer Festival will bring another 150 teams in during November, according to Martin.