The effects of the huge - and ongoing - oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are being felt on the holiday island of Sanibel, which lies off Florida's western coast. Bookings for holiday homes on the island have plummeted even though the oil slick has not been spotted anywhere in the vicinity of Sanibel.

So far, BP has failed to stop the oil pouring out of a broken pipe, and millions of litres of oil have been streaming into the Gulf of Mexico over the past six weeks. The oil slick is spreading and covering an ever-increasing expanse of water and has already hit the coastlines of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. The oil is slowly making its way towards Florida, and the tourist industry is very worried; if the oil hits the Sunshine State's beaches, then tourists will stay away en masse.

No bookings
The effect is already being felt on the holiday island of Sanibel, opposite Fort Myers on the Florida coast. Real estate agent André Arensman, a Dutch national, says bookings for holiday houses for the summer and autumn have plummeted even though experts say there is just a 10 to 15 percent chance of the slick covering Sanibel's beaches.

Hurricane season
Mr Arensman says tourists are not taking any chances now that hurricane season has started. "Nobody knows what effect a hurricane will have on the movement of the oil slick", he says. In an effort to reassure potential holidaymakers, the municipal authorities have already put booms around the island to prevent as much oil as possible from hitting the beaches but tourists are being extremely cautious. Why book a holiday on an island that could be covered in sticky, black oil?

BP's billions
Mr Arensman says the oil spill is a huge blow; western Florida’s tourism industry, good for around 50 billion euros a year, has only just started recovering from the global economic crisis. He believes BP will try get out of the disaster as cheaply as possible even though the company has made billions of euros of profits over the last few years. Mr Arensman wants Washington to seize BP's assets because cleaning up the disaster could cost hundreds of billions of euros.

The oil giant has already promised to pay for the cleanup and regeneration of coastal areas hit by the oil slick and has agreed to pay claims for oil-related damages. Over the last 30 days, BP has paid out more than 38 million euros in damages.