The Gulf of Mexico oil spill will cost Mississippi's coastal counties nearly $120 million in lost tourism and service industry revenues this summer season, even though the state's beaches have not been hit by crude, say researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi.
David Butler and Edward Sayre project a 5 percent revenue loss from May through August, compared to the same period last year.
Their study, released Monday, notes that tourism has taken a large hit with non-casino hotels down 50 percent. These figures include the tourism and service sectors related to hotels, restaurants and food and beverage outlets. It does not include the losses in the seafood sectors such as shrimping.
"No oil has washed up on Mississippi beaches, yet the economic impact is very significant to the people of the Gulf Coast," said Butler. "It's significant because of the negative images portrayed by the national news coverage."
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