Tourism/travel news, updates and discussions about the states along the Gulf of Mexico: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, Please add your own thoughts, questions and observations!
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Set to last 4-5 days, but fatalities fortunately so far minimal.http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/27/us/harvey-landfall/index.html
Read more…OK, what I'm going to say might make me sound like a jerk, but here goes: Last night I was having a heated discussion with my girlfriend , whose sister was planning to spend a week on the Florida panhandle in August (she'd bought tickets before the BP oil spill) and is now looking into canceling her tickets. My girlfriend thinks her sister should go anyway and show solidarity with the poor folks on the coast, and help them out with her vacation dollars. It's true those poor people need all the…
Read more…I recently visited the FL Panhandle. I was impressed with how everyone kept things going despite the misperceptions on how the oil spill has affected nearby areas. Everything is alive and well from Destin to Panama City. My first feature from the trip is on YOLO Boarding. Check it out here. The next feature will discuss the rise of Alys Beach and much more. We will have it all up on Mens Traveler. beaches.jpg
Read more…I'd like to drive over to Apalachicola from Miami in a few days. It seems to me that the oil spill is not affecting this area (my heart goes out to all the areas affected now or in the future). Can someone provide more information on the current conditions there? Are oysters still being served? Also, any stops that you recommend on my way, or in that area? My interests are: dog friendly, slow food, nature & hiking.
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Beach Businesses Look Ahead to Fall
by Kimberly Blair
"...Beverly McCay, the general manager of the Holiday Inn Express, regards beach business as a fizzle since the BP oil spill.
Although occupancy rates for July were 78.5 percent, compared to 71.2 percent for 2009, the average daily rate paid for those rooms was down 11 percent.
...Hoteliers and business owners up and down the coast are looking ahead to fall and next season for opportunities to collect some cha-ching to get through the winter.
A BP-funded voucher program of gift cards for any hotel, motel, or vacation condo rental in Escambia County, set to start later this week, is one such idea
many hope will spur some beach business.
...Escambia is spending $700,000 from BP on $100 American Express gift cards to give to people who book rooms or condos in an effort to motivate them
to visit the beaches and spend money in restaurants and other venues hurt by the oil.
The ... Santa Rosa Island Authority, beach businesses and other event promoters have filled the fall calendar full of events to bring folks out.
'We have something every weekend in September,' said Robbie Lofty, SRIA events coordinator. Weekends in October and even November are filling
up, too, she said.
...The biggest bang on the beach for the fall could be DeLuna Fest, which is expected to become an a nnual event and is shaping up to bring more than
20,000 ticket holders to the beach in mid-October.
Already, more than half the hotel rooms on the beach are booked for the event by tickets holders coming from 36 states and two foreign countries, organizers say."
(Destin - Fort Walton Beach - Okaloosa Island - Mary Esther - Cinco Bayou):
Greg Schmidt "Just got back from spending 5 days at Sundestin Resort.
Not a drop of oil was to be found. Beaches are perfect. If you didn't go to Destin this summer, you missed a great vacation. The press lied and it hurt the entire panhandle. Time to start planning next years stay. I will be back in November." Yesterday at 4:00pm
>Joyce Hardison:"Newman Gary works with a Man that in the Reserves and he was called up to help on the clean up... He TOO said the Press made a huge ordeal over the spill and he said they had it almost 100% cleaned up!" Yesterday at 5:20pm
>Amanda Barnard "We didn't let the media scare us away and we are so thankful!!! We were there in July, a little seaweed, but no oil....wish we could go back now!" 19 hours ago
Naples, Fla. Chef Dishes Out Culinary Masterpiece Using
Clear Gulf of Mexico Waters
Naples, Fla. (August 25, 2010) – The southwest Florida Gulf Coast, including the beaches in Naples and Marco Island, were never impacted by the Gulf oil spill. The waters are so clean and clear, the area visitors bureau and a local chef teamed up to create a video that proves that point in a delicious way. Chef Fabrizio Aielli of SeaSalt Naples creates a dish called Gulf of Mexico Pasta with linguine cooked in Gulf saltwater from Naples Beach, accompanied by a delicious Florida blue crab sauce.
“We’re launching a new series of video features on our visitor Web site called Adventures in Paradise and wanted a truly attention getting episode to premiere the series,” said JoNell Modys, the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau’s communications manager and producer of the series. “We’ve been working against the misperception issue about the condition of our beaches and Gulf waters ever since the early days of the oil spill. We are so clear, clean and pristine here, we thought it would bring the message home if we all enjoyed some delicious pasta with crab sauce cooked in our own seawater, and shared that experience in a video feature.”
Chef Fabrizio Aielli, owner and executive chef at the SeaSalt restaurant in Naples, is an expert at combining natural salts with food. His inspired dish features linguine cooked in Gulf of Mexico seawater and a sauce made with fresh Florida blue crab. No additional salt is needed in the recipe besides the natural salt from the seawater. Visit the visitors bureau’s Web video page in the Adventures in Paradise section to view Chef Aielli performing a cooking demonstration at a Naples beachfront location.
The Gulf of Mexico Pasta is a highlight for the first of many episodes of the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB’s new Web video series, Adventures in Paradise. Adventures in Paradise, found on www.ParadiseCoast.com, will feature unique experiences ranging from outdoor excursions to sophisticated shopping, as well as interesting takes on local people, places and things to do when visiting the Paradise Coast region of Naples, Marco Island and the Gulf Coast Everglades.
For more information on The Paradise Coast – Naples, Marco Island and the Everglades, call 1-800-688-3600 for a free visitors guide from within the USA, or dial 1-239-225-1013 from outside the USA; or go at the area’s official visitor information Web site, www.ParadiseCoast.com.
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Link to Adventures in Paradise premiere video episode.
BP Awards $3 Million to Coast Tourism
by Jessica Bowman
"...Back in June, the [Harrison County Tourism Commission] approached BP privately with a plan [to] maximize tourism and provide supporting funds for local events.
...A $1,175,000 payment will support Harrison County events and activities including Biloxi Seafood Festival, Chefs of the Coast, Cruisin' the Coast, horse shows, Mississippi Hotel & Lodging Association Charter Boat Fishing Tournament, Fall Classic Mississippi Youth Soccer Tournament, Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Rendezvous & Harbor Grand Opening, Magnolia Classic USFA Fast Pitch Softball Tournament, Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo and a Familiarization Tour of convention and coliseum facilities by national tourism magazines, agencies and media.
In Hancock County, a $995,000 payment will support events and activities including motor coach promotions, Second Saturday Art Walk, Diamondhead Arts & Crafts Fair, a country concert weekend, a Cruisin' the Coast event in Hancock County, WaveFest and Snowflakes on Mississippi's West Coast.
And in Jackson County, a $580,000 payment will support events and activities including the Ocean Springs Art Walk, Mississippi Gulf Coast Blues & Heritage Festival, Walter Anderson Museum of Art Exhibit Opening, Zonta Festival, Ocean Springs Feast of Flavors, Welcome Center Familiarization Tour, a Cruisin' the Coast event in Jackson County and the Gautier Mullet & Music Festival.
A $250,000 payment will promote golf tourism in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties and provide incentives for golfers who book a 3-day/3-night golf package. MGCGA will invite to participate and work with any lodging property located in the three Mississippi Gulf Coast counties that can manage golf packages.
...$3 million will be split between the Harrison, Hancock and Jackson County tourism boards along with the Mississippi Gulf Coast Golf Association. This payment is in addition to the $15 million BP gave the state for tourism promotion in May."
US Tourism Suffers as BP Spill Keeps Visitors Away
by Adam Thomson
"At 76, Raleigh Carter has seen a few things in his time. But he says that few of them compare with the plunge his “Beach Bums” jet ski business on the Mississippi Gulf coast has taken since the April 20 BP oil spill.
On this sunny day, he has only had three rentals compared with dozens a day during the holiday season in previous years. 'When tourists read about gushers in the gulf, they get scared,' he says. 'Probably be a long time before they come back, too.'
...During a normal summer, the brightly painted tabletops at Shaggy’s Harbor Bar & Grill, a shack on stilts in Pass Christian, Mississippi, that offers local seafood and a commanding view of the gulf, would be full of BBQ shrimp plates and Bud Lite.
Today, there are only a handful of people eating and the atmosphere is muted. 'People always ask about the shrimp now,' says Malissa Neil, a waitress from neighbouring Long Beach. 'They want to know if it’s safe to eat.'
...One of the brighter spots along the tourism-dependent strip is the gaming industry, which Ms Bynum of the MDA says has proved fairly resilient to the oil spill. 'A lot of the older generation of tourists come to these parts, and many just stay in the casinos,' she says."
Here's some good news from AP
"A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe is suddenly flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Scientists discovered the new microbe while studying the underwater dispersion of millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf following the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
And the microbe works without significantly depleting oxygen in the water...."
So is that it -- is the problem now just one of perception?
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