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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Tourists brave cold, hit beaches in sweaters

Tourists in southwest Florida aren't letting the sunshine state's cold temperatures keep them locked in their Florida villas away from the sand, bundling up before heading to the beach.

Temperatures dipped into the 40's Tuesday morning and raising to the mid-50's by the afternoon - but still tourists were laying out on the beach by 10:30 a.m.

"Its still pretty out even though the natives probably think we're crazy for being out here," said Carroll Blair, a tourist from Indiana.

Some groups said they were going for a walk on the beach and then going to a tanning salon before heading back out of town.

Temperatures are expected to continue to dip into the week.

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.