According to a study released on Thursday by Oxford Economics and the U.S. Travel Association, the BP oil spill could cost the U.S. Gulf Coast region almost $23 billion in lost travel and tourism business over the next three years.

To assist an area where some 400,000 jobs are reliant on visitation, Oxford and U.S. Travel also called for BP to fund $500 million, an “aggressive and comprehensive” marketing effort to hype the Gulf as a destination.

The report was based on an Oxford study of 25 recent natural and man-made disasters, including other oil spills, hurricanes, acts of terrorism, the Asian tsunami, and pandemics.

Out of those disasters, only hurricanes have an equally long window of impact on tourism as oil spills.

Source:Market Watch