7 JUN: A year after the devastating BP oil spill, tourists are heading back to the beaches of western Florida in record numbers, the Miami Herald newspaper reported yesterday.
It was 4 June last year when patches of oil started appearing on the 200 miles (320kms) of beaches stretching along what’s known as the Florida Panhandle - some seven weeks after the initial explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
Hotel bookings and restaurant sales in a region which relies heavily on tourism plummeted 50%.
Workers are still unearthing bits of sticky, hardened oil, the Herald reports.
But the accommodation business is booming again, with hoteliers reporting record bookings for the coming summer months.
"We knew that once the beach was clean and people knew the Gulf was safe, they would come back, and they sure have", a tourism official said.
