Hoping to lure tourists to the region as summer draws to a close, Panhandle communities have begun offering incentives to bring visitors back to a region hit hard by the threat of BP oil.
Meanwhile, BP announced it was speeding up the process by which businesses get paid.
On Tuesday, tourism officials in Destin announced they will begin offering $250 vouchers for Southwest Airlines, which began flights to the region in May, or to the Silver Sands Factory Stores for visitors who spend at least three nights in one of more than 500 Walton County hotel, motel or rental properties.
The money, provided by a portion of a $7 million grant from BP in the wake of the summer oil spill, is the first of such funds to be distributed under an agreement reached between the company and local communities affected by the April 20 explosion and subsequent oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf.
“We know many of our loyal visitors have been concerned about the Gulf oil incident, but our 15 beach communities are open for enjoyment and we’re ready to prove it with this reward,” said Dawn Moliterno, executive director of the Beaches of South Walton, the local tourist development agency.
Other communities, meanwhile are still moving forward with their own efforts to use the BP money to provide incentives and subsidies to area lodging establishments and other tourism-dependent business that were adversely affected by the spill, which spewed oil into the Gulf during the region’s busiest tourist season of the year.
In Santa Rosa County, tourism officials have approved a hotel voucher program, but details are yet to be concluded, said Maureen LaMar, director of the Pensacola Beach Visitors Information Center.
“We’ve had a plan approved, but we’re waiting now to find out how its going to work,” LaMar said.
The $7 million will be divided between the seven Florida tourism councils most heavily affected by the spill, which released more than 4 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf, according to latest estimates.
Under the program, Escambia and Santa Rosa counties will receive $700,000.
The seven councils will equally split 14 percent of the $7 million. The rest will be distributed based on the amount of bed tax each of the councils collects. The money must be distributed by Sept. 15 and any promotional program must end by Sept. 30.
Meanwhile, BP announced it was speeding up efforts to get money in the hands of businesses faster than in previous several weeks. Business owners have complained that the process is cumbersome and arbitrary.
“While we have paid thousands of business claims over the past 13 weeks, we recognize the frustration of small business owners who still have claims pending as we transition from the BP claims process to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility,” Darryl Willis, of the BP Claims Team said in a news release. “We heard from many businesspeople who are suffering, so we acted. These changes are designed to cut through paperwork and expedite payments.”
About 2,600 business claims totaling $9 million were processed between Saturday and Monday using guidelines developed based upon industry requirements. These payments will be mailed to businesses this week.
By Michael Peltier
The News Service of Florida
It’s a good thing that businesses are being compensated, but it’s too bad that red tape is holding things up. It’s not enought to just distribute vouchers. There need to be extensive advertising campaigns to ensure tourists that areas are safe to visit.