© 2025 WFSU Public Media
WFSU News · Tallahassee · Panama City · Thomasville
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Tourism up, but panhandle still struggling from oil spill

By Gina Jordan

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-954206.mp3

Tallahassee, FL – A Senate panel on tourism and commerce got updates Tuesday from leaders in the tourist industry. Gina Jordan reports.

Before the state could start recovering from the recession, the Deepwater Horizon explosion dumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, and Panhandle vacations plummeted. Robert Skrob with the Florida Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus says in Okaloosa County, hotel revenue was down more than 30-million dollars last summer.

"BP came forward with some marketing money in the Fall, and business has been up this fall and winter, but that 30.7 million dollars of business is equivalent to five months of off -season revenue."

Coastal Okaloosa County makes up part of Senator Don Gaetz' district.

"BP's ads congratulating themselves on being a good corporate citizen is kind of like the happy hooker advertising her virtue. (laughter) I'm a little tired of it and I think it's hypocritical and disingenuous and in extraordinarily poor taste."

Skrob says most communities are reporting an increase in visitors, especially in Central Florida, but consumers are doing more negotiating to get a better deal.