The Deepwater Horizon Disaster has led to many negative impacts to the Gulf of Mexico. It is considered a "wake up call" to the oil and gas industry. The beautiful ecosystem has been badly destroyed. Besides the serious environmental issues, this incident has largely influenced the American economy in the Gulf region. Many people are suffering from financial difficulties currently and they are not sure when they can recover from this crisis.

Why is the impact so great?

For people who have planned to spend their holidays in the Gulf of Mexico, right after the incident, almost all tourists have cancelled their vacation. Nobody dares to go to the region although BP has put in a lot of effort to clean up the sea. The true fact is the natural assets like blue water and sandy beaches are hard to be replaced. The tourism industry is currently "dead". Nobody dares to take the risk. In the point of view of the tourists, the sea water and the beach are no longer clean. Why should they spend their hard earned money at this tourist spot? Due to this factor, the sales for travel agents have dropped dramatically since 20th April 2010. The occupancy rates for most of the hotels in the region are very low. According to the research done by the US Travel Association, this unfortunate incident will have long-term effects on the businesses and jobs related to tourism.

Same thing happens to those business owners who are dealing with food and beverages. Due to this oil leak disaster, many people find that the seafood available in the Gulf Coast is no longer safe. The sea was contaminated and the seafood industry has been badly hit. Countless sea creatures were killed. Although those boat owners have been compensated by BP for the damage of their boats, they are still suffering. They totally can't fish in the Gulf Coast. The loss of income and the loss of jobs have become serious problems to many victims. It is hard for them to move out from the region to look for new job opportunities. The compensation given by BP is totally not sufficient for them to survive.

Even if you are not the residents of the Gulf of Mexico, you will still feel the negative impact. The oil spill incident is considered a nightmare for the BP shareholders and those pensioners in UK. UK pension funds are the major BP shareholders. Since the disaster, The BP's share value has been decimated and many people have suffered loss from the BP stock market crash.

Seriously speaking, BP oil spill crisis is not only a "US issue". It is considered a global issue. Let's keep our fingers crossed. We are expecting a better solution from BP. We are also looking forward for a better future.