BP Kicks In $30 Million For Panhandle Tourist Marketing

April 11, 2011

The seven Northwest Florida counties deemed to have been hit the worst by last year’s oil spill will get $30 million from oil company British Petroleum to fund marketing campaigns to tourists, Gov. Rick Scott said Monday.

This comes on top of $32 million from BP that had previously been given to market Florida in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last year that dumped 4.9 million barrels oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The spill scared tourists away from Northwest Florida, which was nearest to the oil spill, just before the start of last year’s busy summer tourism season. As a result, local restaurants, shops and hotels lost millions in revenue.

“This grant will assist the seven counties hardest hit by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last summer,” Scott said at a press conference. He thanked BP, the company that leased the oil rig, for “stepping up.”

“It’s a very small step in the road to recovery,” Scott said, adding that “we will continue to hold BP accountable to Floridians.”

Within 15 days, $10 million will be given to the tourist development councils in Escambia, Walton, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Franklin, Gulf and Bay counties to spend on advertising.

The remaining $20 million will be dispersed in the next six months. Officials from the tourist development councils in these counties said the money will mostly be used to fund big-budget television, print and Web campaigns aimed at media markets in southeastern cities such as Atlanta, Birmingham and Nashville.

“One of the things that we recognize is how important tourism is to the economy of Florida, especially here in the Northwest part of Florida where there was a direct impact,” said BP executive Luke Keller.

Dawn Moliterno, head of the Northwest Florida Tourism Council, which is a coalition of all the area TDCs, said there will be efforts to track whether the BP grant money is actually bringing in more tourists. Moliterno said they will also closely watch bed tax revenues to see if they rise, fall or stay flat during this year-long marketing push.

Moliterno said many counties have already seen more tourism dollars this year than anticipated.

“We all have rebounded, and most of it has been because of what BP has done for us,” said Denis McKinnon, the head of the Escambia County Tourist Development Council.

Though BP has given Florida a total of $1.7 billion in payments, both to the state and tourism officials and to individuals through its claims process, the state is still mulling whether to file a lawsuit over the spill.

Florida and other states have until April 20 – the anniversary of the rig explosion – to decide whether to go to court to seek reimbursement from BP for costs and lost revenues brought on by the spill. Scott told reporters Monday that he’s hopeful it won’t come to that.

“I’m working with our lawyers and talking to BP,” Scott said. “My goal is to not have to go through litigation and make sure BP does the right thing.”

While BP was being praised for its $30 million grant to Panhandle counties, the administrator hired to handle reimbursement of individual claims against the oil company was bashed by Senate lawmakers on Monday.

Several state senators were unhappy that BP claims administrator Ken Feinberg turned down an invitation to speak at the Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday.

Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, said he was given a letter last week from Feinberg saying he couldn’t make it because his schedule wouldn’t allow it. Feinberg said in the letter he wouldn’t be in Florida the rest of the month of April.

Feinberg had appeared before a state House committee last month and was criticized for the slow pace of claims approvals. At that committee, Feinberg said there were more than 500,000 claims filed. But those claims have been slow to be filled in part due to insufficient documentation of lost revenue.

Feinberg promised at the meeting to speed along the claims process.

Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, called the snub “insulting,” and said it indicates “his lack of concern.”

Siplin said he would meet with Senate President Mike Haridopolos to discuss whether to subpoena Feinberg.

“It’s crucial to get him here,” Siplin said.

By Lilly Rockwell
The News Service of Florida

Comments

4 Responses to “BP Kicks In $30 Million For Panhandle Tourist Marketing”

  1. MQ on April 12th, 2011 10:10 am

    “Giving money to any Government official,County or otherwise… is as wise as giving alcohol and car keys to teenagers. The result will not be pretty ”
    – John Molino

    Absolutely the truth, put simply. Love it!
    Thanks for sharing!!!

  2. well on April 11th, 2011 8:49 pm

    OH whitepunk

    U say the sweetest things !!!!!!

  3. JohnMolino on April 11th, 2011 7:39 pm

    Giving money to any Government official,County or otherwise… is as wise as giving alcohol and car keys to teenagers.

    The result will not be pretty.
    Elected Officials and Government employees will have their wives,girlfriends,family members and friends open up dummy corporations to quickly siphon off these funds into their own pockets. It’s a Southern thing,I am told…how things work around here,right?

  4. whitepunknotondope on April 11th, 2011 11:40 am

    “The detailed reports will measure results against quarterly benchmarks to demonstrate how the funds are being used and the results that were generated. Return on investment will be measured in variety of ways including website metrics and analytics, participation at events, visitation, bed tax collections and economic impact.”

    LOL! This is why you should never go into marketing kids… it’s been taken over by pencil pushing corporate accountants. Even the most fun careers have been screwed up by expectations of ROI!

    Executives couldn’t understand creative or marketing if God himself revealed it to them.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News