5 tourist spots in turmoil

They were once hot vacation spots that are now global hotpsots. But don't let the headlines fool you - you can still visit them and be safe.

1 of 5
BACKNEXT
Florida
Florida
The situation: A gigantic oil plume is leaking from BP's underwater well in the Gulf of Mexico and fouling everything in its path, including the beaches along Florida's Panhandle, where tar balls have washed ashore. The leak has spread since an oil rig explosion on April 20.

Financial hit: Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Economic Competitiveness, estimates the state could lose anywhere from $2.2 billion to $10.9 billion in tourism spending, causing the loss of 39,000 to 195,000 jobs.

The response: Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing arm, has live Web cams positioned along beaches and Twitter feeds from thousands of residents providing updates on the oil spill impact. Many hotels are also bending cancellation policies. Lonely Planet editor Robert Reid suggests that tourists seek out hotels allowing them to cancel without penalty if oil washes ashore.

The reality: Chris Thompson, chief executive of Visit Florida, notes that Florida has 825 miles of beaches and "a certain small portion of that is being affected at the extreme western portion of the Panhandle." So there's still plenty of clean beach to go around.


NEXT: Jamaica
Last updated June 18 2010: 12:14 PM ET
More Galleries
10 of the most luxurious airline amenity kits When it comes to in-flight pampering, the amenity kits offered by these 10 airlines are the ultimate in luxury More
7 startups that want to improve your mental health From a text therapy platform to apps that push you reminders to breathe, these self-care startups offer help on a daily basis or in times of need. More
5 radical technologies that will change how you get to work From Uber's flying cars to the Hyperloop, these are some of the neatest transportation concepts in the works today. More

Special Offer

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.