TravelMole US Editor David Wilkening explains how misconceptions are causing further damage to tourism in the Gulf Coast.

“Damage forecasts soon after the BP Gulf oil spill were bad. But then they got worse. Dead birds. Soiled beaches.

The reality, however, is that the spill led to the deaths of less than one percent of the number of birds killed in the Valdez spill.

The spill was enough oil to fill about one- sixth of the Louisiana Superdome.

That’s not exactly a drop in the proverbial bucket, but it’s a strikingly different image from one emblazoned in people’s mind by the early reaction,