U.S. Travel Launches Portal Site to Inform Travelers of Gulf Coast Destination Updates

GulfTravelUpdate.com Provides Central Source for News and Information on States and Communities Impacted by the BP Oil Spill

August 2, 2010

Washington, DC - The U.S. Travel Association announced the launch of GulfTravelUpdate.com, a portal site that centralizes links to up-to-date travel and recovery information on Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi—the states directly affected by the BP Oil Spill.

GulfTravelUpdate.com includes links to traveler information from federal, state and local sources, plus oil spill news coverage and a map featuring the spill’s impact on Gulf shores from media partner USA Today.

Deals and special offers for travel to the Gulf Coast region are also available.

“This site compiles a tremendous amount of information from states, destinations and agencies on the status of beaches and coastal communities along affected areas of the Gulf Coast,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “We recognize that people have questions about the realities of travel to the region. GulfTravelUpdate.com consolidates what is known from official travel and government sources and presents it under one easy-to-use umbrella website.”

Content on GulfTravelUpdate.com is presented in three tabs: Learn, Help and Share:

• Learn – Updates include beach openings, webcams, videos and travel advisories;
• Help – Information on how visitors can help by volunteering in the area or making a donation; and
• Share – Tools to help spread the word of travel to the Gulf Coast region via Facebook and Twitter.

GulfTravelUpdate.com was developed by the U.S. Travel Association and is powered by DiscoverAmerica.com, the official travel and tourism website of the United States.

Contact:
Cathy Keefe 202-408-2183

The U.S. Travel Association is the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the $704 billion travel industry. U.S. Travel’s mission is to promote and facilitate increased travel to and within the United States. U.S. Travel is proud to be a partner in travel with American Express. For more information, visit www.ustravel.org.