So you think the oil spill is not going to hurt the Keys?

The spill is all ready hurting the Keys with a decline in tourist



Spill fears have potential tourists calling

By KEVIN WADLOW
kwadlow@keynoter.com
Posted - Saturday, May 08, 2010 11:00 AM EDT
Even if the Gulf of Mexico oil spill never reaches the Florida Keys, the local tourism economy has already felt its effect.

"We're telling people it's beautiful here and they should come on down," said Amelia Thigpen, a fishing-trip booker for Almost There Charters in Key West. "Most people who call just want to know what's going on, but a few have canceled."

Islamorada offshore captain Kevin Brown said he hasn't had customers cancel booked trips aboard his Gold Reserve boat, "but the phone isn't ringing like it was."

"I've had a few regulars call to ask what's happening, and to say they hope we're OK," Brown said. "I tell them the spill is 1,000 miles away."

Barbara Hewlett, who works with husband Butch to run the Miss Barbara Ann charterboat in Marathon, said customers from the northern states have been alarmed by reports on the Keys.

"One woman told me she heard on the news up there that the Keys were wiped out," Hewlett said. "People are asking if we're OK, and we say that [the spill] is still way up there, and we're fine."

If the spill does make its way to the Keys, Hewlett said, the Miss Barbara Ann already has registered as a response boat. "We've got to protect our fishing grounds," she said. "It's the right thing to do."

No effects to Florida water were expected within the next two days. Although parts of the spill were moving eastward toward Pensacola, the spill there appeared to remain about 60 miles offshore.

Still, Key West Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Virginia Panico said some visitors have called to ask about the spill's effects on the Keys, and Panico said her staff is honest and tells them it's not known what will happen in the long term, but everything's fine in the Keys now.

"We've gotten suggestions on how to clean up the oil," she said, "and we explain that we don't have an oil situation."

Callers also hear that visitors to the Keys have plenty to do on the land as well as on the water. "People are listening and understanding," Panico said.

The county's other chambers of commerce report receiving a few calls of inquiry or concern.

However, numerous lodgings are getting calls from potential visitors, but only one had a cancellation due to the spill, says Jody Weinhofer, president of the Lodging Association of the Florida Keys and Key West.

The Tourist Development Council is trying to keep everyone apprised of the situation on its Web site and through Facebook and Twitter, and it's sending out information blasts to attractions and hotels.

Most people are just waiting to see what happens in the gulf.

"It doesn't seem like there is a whole lot we can do about it here. We are so utterly helpless," Luke Abbey, a staffer at Subtropic Dive Center in Key West, told the Associated Press. "If there is an oil slick on the water, there is no diving."

Abbey cited the main sports in Key West: "Drinking, fishing and diving. In that order. The only thing that is not going to be affected [if oil reaches the Keys] is drinking."

Keys Sunday Editor Karen Quist contributed to this report.