Gulf Coast tourism takes a hit

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Business has slowed for tourism hot spots along the Gulf Coast.

A once-booming industry is faltering, this time not because of a hurricane but because a crisis that attracted swarms of national media.

Many restaurant managers who count on tourists and visitors to keep up sales felt the media scared people away.

Businesses wonder how long they can stay afloat after BP's April 20 oil rig explosion, which killed 11 people, and stayed in the public eye on national TV for months.

BP dumped 200 million gallons of oil into Gulf waters for nearly three months killing animals and causing tar balls to litter the shoreline.

BP cleanup crews worked to collect the contaminated crude from the sand and move it to a nearby landfill.

Environmental issues aside, some residents are none too happy after this summer's smaller crowds.

Bubba Turner, owner of Gloria's Produce, said business is down 25 percent but he's been reluctant to file a claim against BP.

Turner said his fruit and vegetable stand has been a family business for 15 years.

On Aug. 17, he said he's been doing this his whole life, excluding the four years he spent in the Marine Corps. "It's all I know."

The family spent seven years in Mobile, Ala., until they moved to their current location on the road to Dauphin Island.

"Nothing is ever smooth sailing," he said, explaining that the spill is just like a hurricane in that tourists are driven away from the area.

The small wooden stand Turner built right along the road features fresh, local produce and his famous boiled peanuts. Turner stirs one of four huge kettles behind the counter.

Each kettle contains peanuts boiled for 16 hours in a blend of Habanero chili peppers, red peppers, garlic and several more ingredients he is keeping secret. "I've been cooking these a long time," he said. "I've been cooking these a long time," he said.

About 100 miles inland, in the heart of New Orleans, Louisiana's historic French Quarter, there's a café on everyone's itinerary.

On Aug. 14, it was business as usual at Café Du Monde as servers ran around the 24-hour restaurant and patio with hot chicory coffee and French beignets.

One server, Jeff, who wouldn't provide his last name, has been working at Café Du Monde on and off for 15 years. He blamed national broadcast media for scaring away tourists.

"CNN writes these big shock stories and it puts a challenge on us," he said.

He said tourism hasn't recovered since Hurricane Katrina flooded the city in 2005 and that the restaurant is slower because of the negative publicity on newscasts.

"When they were writing about future hurricanes and scaring people, it pissed me off," he said.

Café Du Monde manager Charles Sanchez, 40, said he wasn't here before Katrina but heard business was booming back then.

He said business has been steady, but the café gets most of its visits from tourists rather than locals.

Sanchez explained that when there aren't many customers employees are agitated because they're not making any money. "If business is slow, people just go home," he said.

The summer's earnings along the coast were short for businesses.

One souvenir shop called Surf Style sits along Perdido Beach Boulevard in Orange Beach, Ala.

On Aug. 20, store manager Randy Doege of Alberto, Ala., said, "The volume's just not there anymore.

He said the shop used to see about 800-1,000 customers daily, and this June and July the store served less than 400 daily.

Another tourist attraction with declining numbers is Pensacola Lighthouse, 2081 Radford Blvd., in Pensacola, Fla.

Executive Director Jon Hill said the lighthouse saw a 23 percent to 25 percent drop in visits this season. Hill said the national media hype has affected the site, which draws nearly 400 visitors a day despite the oil spill.

To be fair, the lighthouse has somewhat of a cult following among ghost hunters.

Purported to be haunted, it was featured on a Travel Channel special on the country's most haunted lighthouses. In addition, the Atlantic Paranormal Society, commonly referred to as TAPS, featured the lighthouse on the Sci-Fi Channel's "Ghost Hunters."

Visitors climb 177 steep and winding, wrought-iron steps, stopping to rest in deep window sills for the view and fresh air, until they reach the top of the 151-year-old lighthouse.

After the climb in the dark and stuffy stairwell, visitors emerge into a room housing the lights and step out in the cool breeze off the Gulf.

Visitors are welcome to circle the exterior of the lighthouse for panoramic views of a serene and beautiful coastline.

Back in early April, the lighthouse had just been open for the season a few weeks and the summer looked promising.

The beach must have looked quite different five months earlier. Then there probably weren't any BP jeeps zooming across the shore.

Zahra Farah contributed to this story.