$100 Million Less Spent at Ala. Beaches

Tourists spent almost $100 million less visiting Alabama's main tourist beaches last year than the year before the Gulf oil spill.

By: Lauren Vargas | WKRG
Published: February 11, 2011

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The vice president for Gulf Shores-Orange Beach tourism agency, Mike Foster, said Friday that $144 million was spent in the beach communities of Orange Beach, Gulf Shores and Fort Morgan in 2010.

That compares to $241 million in 2009, the year before the spill.

Foster calls the difference "very significant," and he says it shows people stayed away from beach communities because of the oil spill.

He says the number doesn't include people who made a one-day trip to the shore.

State tourism officials say a million fewer people visited Alabama's beaches in 2010 than in 2009.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)