Update on Punta Gorda and the Gulf Oil Spill :: June 2010

Whether I talk to family, friends or clients the first thing they ask is the horrible Gulf oil spill affects you in Punta Gorda. Fortunately I can say no and with reasonable confidence we should remain “oil free”. The oil remains a long way from our shores and based on a number of factors such as currents and weather patterns among others should spare us. The following email was published by Fishermen’s Village which is the number one tourist attraction in Punta Gorda and where we’re located. A number of links are contained within the following email discussing how Southwest Florida remains untouched.

Please be assured Punta Gorda remain pristine and untouched from this unfortunate disaster. Your browser may not support display of this image. June 10, 2010 To All Merchants Today we were on a conference call with “Visit Florida” regarding the current and future plans to balance the perception that the oil spill has impacted all of Florida. As you may have read, BP has given Governor Crist 25 million dollars for advertising efforts so that the communication all over the country is that Florida is open for business. Fishermen’s Village has been proactive thus far by communicating through our website that the oil is hundreds of miles from us. We have encouraged both Chambers as well as the City of Punta Gorda to do the same. They have followed our lead and they too have the communication on their websites. We are in the process of putting on our website a video feed each day which shows the Village and Charlotte Harbor in its pristine condition. We are focusing our efforts on Facebook, Twitter and blogging about Fishermen’s Village. This type of social “FREE” networking is the new marketing trend!! MERCHANT CALL TO ACTION * For each Merchant who has a website please communicate on your website page that we are untouched by this oil spill. You can certainly use your text or our website text as a guideline. * If you have a Facebook Page, Twitter or Blog use this FREE social media to get the word out. Be sure to add pictures to your facebook/twitter/blog * Go to www.visitflorida.com to see what the state is doing. It will help your business. You can also post pictures to the visit Florida site. The link to post same day photos is http://www.facebook.com/FloridaSunshine. This is Visit Florida’s Share A Little Sunshine page and it is supplying the "Shared Images" that you see on http://www.visitflorida.com/floridaliveis.