Obama urges tourism to aid Gulf economy post-spill
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Monday, August 16, 2010
President Obama has urged Americans to "come on down and visit" Florida to help revive the economy stricken by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Mr Obama said oil was no longer flowing into the Gulf but "our job is not finished and we are not going anywhere until it is."
The president is visiting Florida with his wife and elder daughter. On Friday, US incident commander Adm Thad Allen said work would continue to seal the leaking well for good.
The president paid tribute to the US Coast Guard and others who had "toiled day and night" to plug the leak. He urged Americans to take their holidays in Florida, saying: "As a result of the clean-up effort, the beaches are clean, open and safe."
Tourism is one of the mainstays of the Florida economy. This year, however, much of the coastline is deserted, say reporters in Miami.
The dramatic drop in tourists is down to a perception that all the beaches along the Florida panhandle, as it is known, are coated in oil, our correspondent says, even though that is not the case.
Mr Obama said he would maintain the pressure on BP to pay out compensation claims from the $20bn (£12.8bn) fund set up for that purpose.