U.S. Travel Launches Site for Gulf Coast Updates

The U.S. Travel Association has launched 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.

"We recognize that people have questions about the realities of travel to the region," said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. "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
*    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.

Visit ww.ustravel.org.