In addition to being an environmental disaster, the oil spill in the Gulf is affecting travel and tourism in and around our coastal areas. Potential visitors are beginning to reconsider travel to the threatened areas in anticipation of beaches being impacted. Today’s Miami Herald article Florida Tourism in Fear Over Gulf Oil Spill likens this response as similar to a hurricane threat. Florida state tourism officials face difficult decisions in how to address this issue particularly in regards to how to disseminate information to the public (and potential visitors).
I thought that the author poses an interesting question:
“As tourists mulled their summer plans, Florida’s tourism officials debated the best way to influence those decisions. The fight mirrored familiar tension that builds whenever a hurricane looms: how much information about a potential catastrophe is too much information?”
What do you think?
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/05/1613588_p2/fla-tourism-industry-awash-in.html#ixzz0n4MfOLLb
Particularly for our hospitality students — below is a suggested list of resources where you can find more about management strategies used for issues affecting tourism and travel:
Books :
Restoring tourism destinations in crisis : a strategic marketing approach / David Beirman G155.A1 B385 2003
Safety and security in tourism : relationships, management, and marketing / C. Michael Hall G155.A1 S25 2003
ABC-CLIO eBook Collection
GreenFILE
Hospitality & Tourism Complete from EBSCO
Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Collection from Gale
Mia Lamm, FYE Instructor
Nicole Covone, Librarian
Mary Culhane, Librarian
Chris Cannella, Reference Librarian
Dean Vellenga, Librarian
I have a sinking feeling that this oil disaster is being downplayed and may be much larger than we think. I wanted to know just how much oil was flowing into the ocean from that broken pipeline (in both barrels and in gallons) so I did some research on my own.
Barrels vs. Gallons
Most news articles claim that since April 21, 2010 roughly 4 million gallons of sweet crude have been leaked into the Gulf at a rate of 210,000 gallons per day. But according to an Associated Press article just posted today (What went wrong at oil rig? A lot), approximately 4,000,000 barrels have already spilled into the Gulf. When you convert those barrels into gallons, you end up with a whopping 168,000,000 gallons of oil: that’s a difference of 164,000,000 gallons from the previous estimate!
(Don’t believe me? Read the articles and convert the measurements for yourself.)
http://www.examiner.com/x-42484-Environmental-Health-Examiner~y2010m5d12-Toxic-chemicals-used-in-BP-oil-spill-cleanup-oil-to-remain-flowing-through-Gulf-VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill
http://www.calculateme.com/Volume/Barrels(Petroleum)/ToGallons.htm