How Panhandle beaches came back

A year after the massive oil spill, the tourist-dependent and once highly-popular beaches in northwest Florida were virtually deserted. If anyone wanted a hotel or condo unit, big discounts were available. There was no waiting in restaurants because diners were scarce.
 

But this year all that has changed.
 

• Business is up almost one-third at Oaseas Resorts in Panama City Beach. “We’re feeling a whole lot better this year than last year,” Marty McDaniel, CEO, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
 

• Because demand has returned, prices have also returned to pre-oil spill days. Some hotel owners say rates are up 15 to 20 percent this year compared to 2010 and about equal to what they were in 2009.
 

• Miniature golf courses, go-cart tracks and other popular attractions are also jammed.
 

• Some restaurants are quoting an hour and 45 minute wait for a table.
 

The memory of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill that fouled Gulf of Mexico waters and coughed up tarballs onto adjacent beaches is still vivid along the Panhandle. A double blow to the economy came with the lingering impact of the recession. 
 

And then there was the bad publicity: tarballs on the beaches?
 

Even the area’s major cities such as Panama City and Destin, though little impacted by the oil spill, still saw drastic drops in tourist numbers.
 

BP, which was leasing the rig, gave Florida and the other Gulf states millions of dollars in marketing money. In Panama City, tourist groups sent out daily video of its beaches and posted updated photos on digital billboards in cities throughout the southeast. This was definitely  a lesson to others with similar impacts.
 

"We've never tried to hide the impacts from the oil spill because, by telling visitors and potential visitors what was going on, we felt that was important to reassure them. If they came to Panama City beach, they would understand what their vacation experience would be," said Dan Rowe, the head of the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.
 

The weather was still good and the beaches were open, but people stayed away. It's an experience that left many in Panama City bitter. Many residents seem to feel the news coverage was unfair and far too sensational.
 

One of the biggest challenges, business leaders reported, has been overcoming a perception that local beaches were coated in oil last year.
 

Local hoteliers and tourist officials used Facebook and other social media to effectively get the word out to tourists that many beaches were entirely free of oil and tarballs.
 

For Panama City, the spill and the downturn in tourism came just as the community was completing a makeover — with a bevy of new hotels and condos, the Pier Park complex and a brand new $300 million airport.
 

Businesses generally say they expect this summer's rebound to continue.
 

Dieter Blasbichler, owner of the Sea Oats Motel, said room rates were discounted by 30 percent or more last year, especially in July after people saw media accounts on the impact of oil on the beaches.
 

This year, he said, there will be no discounts. And, he added, "We're quite full."
 

Said Rowe of the CVB:
 

"It was a tough year. Every day you didn't know what was going to happen."
 

Rowe said local tourist businesses expected a big year in 2010. One reason was the long-awaited opening of a new, larger airport and the arrival of Southwest Airlines. A lack of air service in the past was usually blamed for the so-called Redneck Riviera’s limitation to drive-in tourists only.
 

The new airport opens up the area to visitors from other cities such as Houston and Baltimore who in the future will be attracted to the sugar-sand beaches commonly found here.
While there have been no environmental issues this season, a new concern has come up: steadily rising gas prices.
 

So far, "That hasn't been a factor," said Buddy Wilkes, general manager of Shipwreck Island Waterpark in Panama City Beach. "Business was soft last year. But people have more confidence in the economy."
 

Rowe said there’s now pent-up demand mainly from family vacationers looking to stay at the beach.
 

As for other impacted areas: in Alabama, one million fewer visitors hit the beaches last year than before the spill. In Mississippi, fewer visitors meant gaming revenue at the state's 30 casinos fell by $130 million.
 

But in all these areas, tourism officials now say, visitors appear to be coming back.
 

By David Wilkening