Study determines tourism cost of Louisiana oil spill

Friday, 26 Jan, 2011 0

The cost of leisure tourism in Louisiana through 2013 because of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion last April has been set at US$691 million, but some of that loss will be offset by increased business travel to the state by government officials and crews working on the cleanup.

So says an analysis conducted for the state’s tourism agency.

The report said business travel to the state will increase by about $395 million through 2013, softening the loss of a downturn in leisure tourism.

“The net impact of the financial loss to the state from the oil spill through 2013 will be about $295 million, according to the report by Tourism Economics, commissioned by the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism,” said the Times Picayune.

Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne said the numbers in the report did not surprise him.

"It means we have a challenge," he said.

The state is expected to mount a new campaign to promote travel and tourism.

The report said the spill’s effects on visitor spending are expected to persist into (the first quarter of) 2013 before returning to the baseline forecast.

The baseline is what tourism officials projected for the 2010-13 period before the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

The report said that although 24.7 million visitors were originally projected to visit the state this year, the oil spill lowers that estimate by about 300,000 to 400,000 visitors.

The report said that "hotels fared very well at the beginning of this crisis," with the number of rooms booked in the April-June period up 15 percent from the same period in 2009.

By David Wilkening

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