AP: Gulf vacationers wait last-minute or go elsewhere

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Officials in Baldwin County, which includes Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, "fear that they are facing a billion-dollar loss in tourism revenue this season," or nearly half of the county's $2.3 billion tourism business, Sentell said.

But he said it's a misperception that local beaches are covered in oil.

"We have a little oil that may come with the morning tide, and it's quickly cleaned up," Sentell said. "Then we're sitting there with beautiful beaches all day long and only a fraction of the number of people who are normally there. The national media has been so focused on the gobs of oil that it gives the impression that there is oil everywhere and that's not the case."

Several organizations that handle meetings and conferences said they did not know of widespread cancellations, but the Knowland Group, which collects data in the industry, surveyed 50 hotels across the Gulf Coast June 2-3 and found 60 percent had group booking cancellations.

And Gulf hotels are nearly as full as last year, according to Smith Travel, which tracks hotel occupancy nationwide, spokesman Jan Freitag said that was probably due to relief workers taking rooms and vacationers frontloading trips in areas that have yet to see oil.

Genevieve Shaw Brown, senior editor of Travelocity, said the website is understandably "seeing cancellations" on the northern Gulf, but what's more disturbing are "queries from customers worried about vacation plans that will see little or no impact, like Orlando."

"People don't necessarily have a handle on geography," she said. "We don't want this to turn to a worse situation, with people worried about trips to places that are not affected." ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jNvzEZyDOOA3oQ_ML_PFlgPpMDXgD9GB7BSO0

Aren't the chemicals still there?