Oil Spill RUMORS Hurting tourist industry!

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. -- There are no tar balls on Florida beaches. No sheen has washed ashore anywhere in the state.

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"We've got a horrible problem with rumor control," said David Halstead, the state's emergency management director. "We are not two or three days away from it hitting the shore. We need to dispel those rumors. ... The beaches are still open."

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Kathy Torian, a spokeswoman for Visit Florida, the state's tourism bureau, said the agency has put an advisory and interactive map on its website to remind visitors how big the state is and that even if oil stains one beach there are plenty more. Tourism is the state's No. 1 industry.

www.businessweek.com...

A horrible problem with rumor control? Some folks here at ATS say the event is hardly being covered in some places. So, apparently, the REAL problem is RUMORS concerning the oil?


Business people are complaining that because of the RUMORS people think the world is coming to an end. They think there is too much hype going on.

Fear among tourists may be expanding quicker than the oil spill off the Gulf Coast,
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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?

www.cdnn.info...

Some people here at ATS say the news of the oil spill is hardly being covered by the media. Yet these coastal businesses say that the information concerning the oil is being over hyped.

Obviously, oil has not really hit these beach areas. Should the threat of oil on beaches be considered an if rather than a 'when'? Is it possible the oil will be contained and cause no damage to beaches?