Fla. tourism officials try to quell oil concerns BusinessWeek
There are no tar balls on Florida beaches. No sheen has washed ashore anywhere in the state. Forecasters are predicting it will be five days or more before any oil from the Gulf spill could arrive on Florida's shores -- and even then they say the damage may be minimal and isolated.
But that reality isn't the perception among some would-be out-of-state tourists, who have been calling seaside resorts this week from the Panhandle to the Keys, fearing the beaches are about to blackened and their vacations ruined. Some hotels are reporting 10 percent cancellations.
"We've got a horrible problem with rumor control," said David Halstead, the state's emergency management director. "We are not two or three days away from it hitting the shore. We need to dispel those rumors ... The beaches are still open."
Kathy Torian, a spokeswoman for Visit Florida, the state's tourism bureau, said the agency has put an advisory and interactive map on its website to remind visitors how big the state is and that even if oil stains one beach there are plenty more. Tourism is the state's No. 1 industry, bringing $65 billion to the state.
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