Gulf Coast tourism: waiting for disaster
No waves of oil have yet to wash ashore at Florida Panhandle beaches, where the sand is sugar white and the sea remains emerald green, but concerns about the long-lasting impact on tourism are commonplace.
The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association estimates occupancy rates already are down almost one third from a year ago along roughly 100 miles of Panhandle beaches between Pensacola and Panama City. This is the northwestern part of the state that is closest to the spill and BP oil spill attracts most of its tourists between May and August.
"It’s really looking very bleak," said Carol Dover, the association’s president.
Occupancy rates for the Memorial Day weekend, typically 90 percent or higher, could sink to the "teens" at many Panhandle hotels and rental units this year, Dover told The Wall Street Journal.
Even if the oil spill never reaches here, there’s concern that word-of-mouth is keeping people away.
Local hotels are waiving deposit fees and setting up webcams so tourists can see the still-clean surf for themselves.
The worst irony: a downturn coming just as the Panhandle was showing signs of bouncing back from several years of hurricane damage and a stiff recession.
“Over the past week some tar balls have been found along the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama,” according to the journal.
Tourism rates in Mississippi and the Gulf Coast have only been running about half as full as usual. The mayor of Dauphin Island in Alabama, where the first tar balls came ashore last weekend, estimates tourist cancellation rates for the summer have topped 50 percent.
Authorities don’t see the oil spill reaching the Panhandle in the next three days, if at all, but caution that forecasting the spill’s movement beyond that is difficult.
“Still, chances are smaller it will reach the western part of Florida’s coast below the Panhandle any time soon. St. Petersburg, a popular winter destination for tourists on the Florida Gulf, is more than 300 miles away from the spill,” said the Journal.
Authorities also are playing down—at least for now—a scenario in which the spill could get caught in the Gulf’s Loop Current before flowing into the Florida Keys and up the Atlantic coast.
But there’s concern everywhere that the widespread news of possible contamination is driving tourists away, even though contended visitors are also not hard to find.
“They are glad they came—even after watching a prison gang working with hay bales on one beach to prepare for the possible arrival of oil slicks,” one tourist told the Journal.
"Those are the little moments you realize it’s different. But otherwise, you can make a nice holiday," she said.
By David Wilkening
David
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