Tourism group wants $25 million to boost Gulf coast

By Leon Stafford

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Southeast Tourism Society plans to ask for $25 million of the $20 billion BP will set aside for victims of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Members of the Atlanta-based group voted Friday to seek the money, saying they would use it for research and a campaign to bring back tourists scared off by reports of tar balls on beaches and oil in marshes.

“There is not an organization that has stepped up to say we have a regional problem,” said Michael Priem, chief operating officer of a destination marketing group, USDM.net. “We think STS has a great opportunity to step up and look at this region as a whole.”

Claims on the $20 billion fund will be handled by the Independent Claims Facility, set up to process “legitimate claims including natural resource damages and state and local response costs,” according to BP. The oil giant makes its first installment into the fund in the third quarter of this year.

STS members met at the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown Friday to hear about the effects of the drilling accident and discuss tourism’s future in the region.

Sharon Alford, executive director of the Houma (La.) Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said hotels in her community near the marshes south of New Orleans are full. But the occupants are BP workers or clean-up crews, she said. Because there is no room for tourists, attractions are hurting.

Vacationers are staying away because of news reports that overstate the effect of the blowout, said Shelley Johnson, executive director of the Lake Charles (La.) Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Many of our visitors . . . think we are all oil covered now,” she said. “They think there is a beach in New Orleans.”

Stephanie Grosskreutz, of the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau, said boosters there are fighting the perception that Florida beaches are off limits, even though that part of Florida hasn’t been affected so far.

Paul Arrigo, of the Baton Rough Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said problems are being felt inland, too. The I-85 corridor, which relies on workers in oil industry, was already hurting from the recession. He fears it could get worse as oil continues to leak from the well and a moratorium on deepwater drilling continues -- although the vast majority of Gulf rigs are not affected by it.

“We see that our corporate transient business is going to go down even more,” he said.