Oil Spill: Should You Cancel Your Florida Vacation?
It's been a lousy year for tourism: Ash clouds, drug wars and oil spills.
June 1, 2010 — -- Thanks to man and nature, this has been a messy and even dangerous year for tourists and air travelers in general. The problems: ash, oil, and drug-related violence.
Oh, and did I mention that the hurricane season, which officially began Tuesday, could be a bad one? Some are calling it, a potential "Katrina year."
But we can't blame nature for everything. In March, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning on Mexico because of violent crime by drug cartels in the country's border regions. Later, the Caribbean nation of Jamaica would get its own travel alert for dangerous disturbances in Kingston.
Stay Up to Date on the Latest Travel Trends from ABC News on Twitter
However, nature got in a few more swings in April, as an Icelandic volcano rained ash down over Europe to such an extent that it shut down an entire continent's airspace and stranded thousands of travelers around the globe.
A few days later, the doings of humans were back in the news with an explosion on a BP oil rig about 50 miles south of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Few paid attention at the time. That would change.
As oil began leaking from the rig, and spreading, fishermen began fearing for their future, and the operators of tourist businesses from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida began wondering how they'd fill their beach hotels -- or entice anyone there at all.
For more air travel news and insights visit Rick's blog at: http://farecompare.com
How bad is it? Journalists here at ABC say it's shaping up to become the "worst oil spill ever" in U.S. history, and I can show you proof in airline ticket prices: Everywhere else in the nation, airfares are rising on average about 20 percent above last year, but tickets to New Orleans are down 20 percent and we're seeing more downward trending in the Biloxi/Gulfport area.
Related Stories
ABC News Live