The new Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau director urged tourism operators last week to keep beating the drum with the message that the beaches are clean and Anna Maria Island is open for business. With $79,000 in lost revenue and 422 lost room nights reported to the bureau by the local tourism industry since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill began on April 20, Manatee County has requested $600,000 from BP to repay losses, CVB Executive Director Elliott Falcione said at a tourism industry meeting at Holmes Beach City Hall. Some of the funds would pay for a live Web cam on a lifeguard stand at Coquina Beach, where it can swivel from the Gulf of Mexico to the Intracoastal Waterway to show prospective visitors that the Island is surrounded by clean water, he said.

Meanwhile, the clean beach/clean water message on the bureau’s Web site should be on every tourism business Web site, along with links to existing live Web cams showing the beach, he said, adding, “We’ve got to work together.” Tourism operators also should use e-mail blasts and social networking sites to spread the word, and consider relaxing their cancellation policies, he suggested. For example, a “book with confidence” guarantee is being offered at several Pinellas County properties, he said. If oil hits a beach where visitors are booked, they get the first night free. On the Orbitz and Travelocity Web sites, tourists get full refunds if any beach within 20 miles of their lodgings is closed by the government due to oil, he said. The bureau is reaching out to a variety of prospective visitors, from United Kingdom tourists who fear that Floridians resent them for British Petroleum’s oil spill to 19 AAA offices in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee to German tourism officials, a joint venture with Sarasota County’s visitors bureau that will invite Condor Airlines to provide service to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Tourism operators should tell visitors about beautiful sunsets and recreational opportunities, rather than focus on the beaches being open because that raises questions in the minds of visitors, Bradenton Beach hotelier and Tourist Development Council member Barbara Rodocker suggested. Operators should keep track of lost revenue and report it to the CVB for future payments from BP, Falcione said. The next meeting is July 28 at 3 p.m. at Holmes Beach City Hall.