Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/52019
fraught with problems from the beginning – paper- work snafus and lack of clarity in submitting the appropriate documents was just the beginning. And now in the last week (November 2, 2011) BP and the Coast Guard agreed that BP is no longer responsible for oil cleanup unless officials can prove it came directly from the BP well, yet there are reports of tar balls still washing up on shore that experts have traced back to the spill. BP now says they will turn their attention to restoration. At press time the lucrative Gulf Coast fishing wildlife officials and volunteers clean- ing the oil soaked feathers of birds along the ecologically sensitive Louisiana coast. This was the beginning of the pub- lic relations campaign to make BP look like good corporate citizens. Many of you remember ads on televi- sion of BP officials and claims repre- sentatives promising to get this right. EvenTonyHayward, the former chief executive of BP took to the airwaves proclaiming his sorrow. From a distance it appeared BP and theCoastGuardwere getting the upper hand. But those distant looks were deceiving. For residents of the Gulf Coast, their nightmare was far from over. The claims process was 66 industry shows little signs of even a modest recovery and the ecological mess could take years, if not decades to overcome. The tourismand hospitality industry is awash in red ink with bankrupt businesses and smallmomand pop enterprises being wiped off themap. Areport commissioned by the Louisiana Office of Tourism in early 2010 projects visitor spending losses of $295million through 2013. That included $691mil- lion in leisure tourism losses. The only reason those figures were not worse was due to a slight increase in business visitor spending. The Florida panhandle, in particular Escambia County and the Pensacola area, experienced a signifi- cant loss of revenues in 2010. Lodging revenues in June of 2010, just two months after the explosion fell 14.7 percent as compared to the previous year and remained depressed all summer, with losses in July andAugust reaching well over 20 percent eachmonth as compared to the same period the previous year. Black Meetings & Tourism November/December 2011: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com P hotos Credit: Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard