Gulf Coast hopes for boost from holidaying Obamas

First family's weekend trip to Florida aimed at encouraging tourism.

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA // The US president Barack Obama and his family encouraged tourists to visit the Gulf Coast region with a weekend trip to Florida that included a porpoise sighting and a swim in coastal waters as the administration tried to boost the area's economy in the aftermath of the BP Plc oil spill. The president, first lady and their youngest daughter Sasha spotted a porpoise in St Andrews Bay during a boat ride on Sunday in rainy weather, and the commander-in-chief even took his turn at the helm of the converted 50ft Navy Launch. To signal the waters were safe for tourists, he and Sasha went for a swim in the bay, which leads into the Gulf.

Encouraging Americans to visit the area, the president also said the "beaches all along the Gulf Coast are clean, safe, and open for business". He pledged to make sure the region's seafood was safe to eat and he promised to expedite the claims process. The spill may cost the region 17,000 jobs and about US$1.2 billion (Dh4.4bn) in lost economic growth by the end of the year, Moody's Analytics said last month. A separate analysis by Oxford Economics released by the US Travel Association said the impact on tourism may cost the coastal economy $22.7 billion over three years.

Mr Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, in speeches and on separate trips to the Gulf Coast, have tried to encourage tourism there, noting that many of the beaches are without oil and the restaurants and hotels are all functioning. Gulf seafood was served at the White House at a recent barbecue. Local officials and businesses say they hoped the first family's trip to Panama City Beach this past weekend would convince people to visit the region.

"Even the president is coming to the sunshine state this weekend," Florida's Republican governor Charlie Crist, who was with Mr Obama, said in an interview on CNN. "We're glad he's coming and it'll be a great advertisement for the sunshine state." The economic losses estimated by the US Travel Association exceed the $20bn BP has agreed to put into an escrow account to pay spill victims. Tourism generated $94bn in revenue in 2008 for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, the group's president, Roger Dow, said in testimony before Congress last month.

The first family partook in a game of mini-golf, where Sasha scored a hole-in-one at the first hole, much to the delight of her parents. "That's how you do it right there," the president said, smiling. "That was unbelievable." The Obamas returned to Washington and are scheduled to leave this week for a longer holiday in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Republicans have called the first family out of touch for going on holiday at a time when the nation's unemployment rate is 9.5 per cent, and criticism increased this month when Mrs Obama went to Spain with family friends.

"It's nice to see the president take the time out of his busy schedule of golf games and campaign fundraisers to clear his conscience and visit Florida for only the second time since the oil spill crisis began," the Republican National Committee spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said. By taking the family to Florida, where the unemployment rate in June was 11.4 per cent, and in Panama City, where the rate as 9.3 per cent, Mr Obama shows he's still connected to average Americans, said Stuart Rothenberg, the publisher of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report in Washington.

"One of the reasons that he was elected was the public concluded that the Bush administration and Republicans had failed after Hurricane Katrina and that government wasn't helping people," Mr Rothenberg said. Mr Obama needs to show that "the administration is committed to a full and complete clean- up and that he's going to get the job done". * Bloomberg