Florida beaches get $30 million tourism boost from BP

TALLAHASSEE, Fla (Reuters) - Hoping to bring tourists back to Florida's Panhandle beaches, Governor Rick Scott joined BP officials and local tourism leaders on Monday to announce a $30 million marketing grant for the region, which lost much of its business last year.

Scott lauded BP's commitment to "do the right thing" by earmarking nearly $82 million so far for tourism and commercial seafood testing since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and subsequent spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I thank BP for stepping up, especially at this time, because it's terribly important that we get the tourist season up and going," Scott said at a press conference.

Unlike South Florida, the Panhandle region's peak season occurs in the summer months.

BP has already made tourism payments of $18 million to Mississippi and $22 million to Alabama, according to the company's recovery website.

Last month, Louisiana's 64 parishes split $5 million in tourism aid from the company. Those funds were the first of six BP payments to Louisiana that will total $30 million.

The grant money announced on Monday for Florida will be distributed through the Northwest Florida Tourism Council, a non-profit group set up after the disaster to represent tourism officials in seven Panhandle counties affected by the spill.

Funds will be divvied up among the counties, which produced marketing plans that have been approved by the regional council.

"We have seen the plans and have great confidence that they will result in great help to the tourism industry there," said Luke Keller, BP's senior vice president in charge of Gulf restoration efforts.

Marketing efforts are expected to include media buys in nearby states where people can easily drive to the Panhandle beaches for vacation but also in places farther afield.

Other incentives include coupons, vouchers and package deals.

"Each of those counties has very different plans," said Dawn Moliterno, chairwoman of the regional tourism council.

"But what you can expect to see are concentrated, targeted initiatives in each of those counties to the customers of their targeted markets."

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Oil Free Destin & Panama City Beach, FL, Offer Big Attraction Deals in 2011 to Lure Spring Break Travelers

It's been a challenging 2010 for most businesses along the coast of Northwest Florida as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill caused thousands of travelers to spend their spring and summer vacations elsewhere. Luckily for those who live and travel to Northwest Florida, the region was spared and the beaches and emerald green waters are more beautiful than ever.

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/press-releases/11/02/p876312/oil-free-destin-panama-city-beach-fl-offer-big-attraction-deals-in-2011##ixzz1EfzNt7Wm

Florida Tourism industry will feel effects of gulf oil spill for years

As chairman of the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, he testified on Capitol Hill about fallout from the spill before a presidential commission investigating the disaster. He speaks regularly with Kenneth Feinberg, the attorney named by President Barack Obama to oversee payouts from the $20 billion BP victim compensation fund.

In a recent interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Overton talked about early friction over the fund, why he's convinced the oil spill caused last summer's tourism slump and problems for the industry that linger long after BP capped the Deepwater Horizon well.

How did you get to know Feinberg?

I first met him when we were testifying before the House Subcommittee on Energy. Everything he said initially, he didn't deliver on. Like he could deliver emergency payments in seven days. He really didn't understand the complexity of our business model. But he's a good listener and did a great job learning our business.

You were still criticizing him until a couple of weeks ago, right?

He took that position on proximity — that if you didn't have oil on the beach you weren't going to get paid. When he reversed it, that turned things around. Then he'd say, "Keith, you'll get paid. Just be patient." Six to eight weeks would go by and no one got paid.

I was inundated with calls to intervene from Florida representatives in Washington who said to either get this guy out or get him moving. It took him writing checks to get belief in the industry that everything would be okay.

How's the relationship now?

It's time our industry show him a little love. It's just fair that we take the politics out of it. I talk to him on the phone two or three times a week, and we e-mail all the time. I ask him about clearly compensable claims that are denied or administratively held up. And we've got to get (a formula for) long-term settlements taken care of.

A lot of people are skeptical that the downturn in local tourism resulted from the oil spill that never came here. How do you know it wasn't caused by the sluggish economy?

Once we got past the cold winter, things were looking up. There was pent-up demand for travel and such good deals, people were ready to release it. Things were supposed to be better and turned out not being better. BP is the only factor that caused that to happen.

Did the TradeWinds get stuck with empty rooms last summer when your customers went elsewhere?

Our occupancy didn't suffer. We had to react and did it by discounting. We shifted our focus from outside of Florida. There was a much broader misunderstanding of (where oil came ashore) in the Northeast and Midwest.

We targeted nearby travelers who knew things here were okay and could take advantage of the heavy discounts — in some cases 50 percent of what we'd normally charge. But it costs the same to service all those rooms (regardless of the room rate). It squeezed our profit in the five months when we (normally) make all our money.

Are there any feeder markets where the TradeWinds is still feeling effects of the spill?

We're down 30 percent in the U.K. market. Obviously, the (exchange rate) of the euro and the (British) pound to the dollar aren't what they used to be. But BP got more bad press there than in the U.S.

British travelers book package deals and for the most part they're two-week trips. So, they get a bill that reads the pound equivalent of $7,000 and say, "Am I going to risk that to go there?"

Will domestic travelers think twice about vacationing in Florida in the future?

One underlying thing people need to recognize is Florida has a brand that's the most powerful in all tourism: sunshine, beautiful beaches, blue water,Florida luxury villas and seafood. That brand has been damaged, and the impacts will last many years.

2010 a mess for Florida tourism

The US state of Florida is still reeling in the wake of the ongoing recession, a record cold winter and the effects of the Gulf oil spill.

All of these factors have in turn contributed to a stall in tourist traffic to the state throughout 2010.

The Hubbard family, owners and operators of a marina complex and seafood restaurant in Madeira Beach on Florida’s Gulf coast, experienced turmoil last year.

“It was incredibly scary, because we didn't know if we were going to get oil” on nearby Florida beaches, said Kathleen McDole, a Hubbard sister whose Friendly Fisherman restaurant saw a 20 percent decline in business compared to 2009, according to USA Today.

Florida’s tourism industry employs approximately 1 million people and accounts for more than one-fifth of the state’s total sales tax revenue.

Prior to the oil spill, the state of Florida experienced freezing temperatures in January, spooking potential visitors and driving business away.

CEO and president of Visit Florida Chris Thompson was aware of the implications of these unfortunate events.

2011 is here and Florida is fabulous as ever so hope you book one of the Florida luxury villas and holiday in Florida soon

“The collective impacts of the economic downturn, and certainly the oil spill, were as significant a challenge as we've (ever) had to face.

“We realize we are in the recovery and restoration stage, and it's yet to be determined the extent of those two stages,” he said.

In light of the recent business downturn, Mr Thompson said Florida is expected to reap benefits from the Tourism Promotion Act, which was passed by Congress in February and created a non-profit corporation to promote U.S. tourism overseas

Drilling Ban Make Florida Tourism Happy

Florida tourism industry is pretty have with the off shore drilling ban. Florida tourism believes that drilling ban is important to save $65 Billion tourism industry in the state.

Last week Obama administration decided to let the drilling ban stand along Florida's coastline. The decision has come under severe criticism from some sections but so far tourism industry is very happy.

In April BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploded which poured nearly 175 million gallons of oil in the sea which ended up on the beautiful beaches of Florida. Tourism industry took a big hit because of the oil spill as negative media coverage turned tourists to other destinations.

There were no takers for many of the florida villas and rentals which made Hotels, restaurants and tour operators in Florida suffered massive losses because of drop in tourist arrivals. Apart from tourism, fishing industry also took huge losses because of oil spill.

Hotels owners says that Florida tourism is $65 billion industry which can't be risked for $700 million of oil drilling revenues. They believe that tourism plays a major role is state's economy as more such incidents could dent the industry further.

Its a miracle that Florida tourism has managed to come out of the incident pretty good in shape but it doesn't mean that government take such risk again to Jeopardize tourism industry. Its not just tourism industry but also the environmentalist who also supports the ban on off shore drilling because of the damage caused by the oil spill to marine life.

However the opposition of drilling ban cites that this will increase United States' dependence of the oil from hostile countries therefore drilling should be continue in the region. Luckily for tourism industry, drilling has been banned until 2017 which gives them time to recover from the current losses caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.