Six weeks on from the Deep Horizon accident and local tourist boards are trying to face down what is now considered to be the largest offshore oil spill in US history.
Initially, states such as Louisiana, one of the areas most heavily affected, were slow to respond.
But with the White House now taking criticism and attempting to crank up the pressure on drilling firm BP after it has continually struggled to stem the flow of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, tourist boards are waking up to the reality of a region on the verge of environmental disaster.
So what are the organisations doing on the web to keep potential visitors up to date?
On face value, not as much people might expect...
Mississippi - has an Open For Business press release from early May, but no other information for visitors on the homepage.
Florida - message on its homepage and dedicated section with updates. It also kept its live coastal webcams in operation.
Alabama - small text link at the top of the homepage directing users to an updates section.
Louisiana - small link on the homepage for latest details. [NB: perhaps a unfortunate promotion on the image carousel?]
One interesting point to note about Louisiana is that it has gone from ignoring the plight of the coastline on Twitter a few weeks back to now using it to lobby the federal government.
Now the intriguing question for these four DMOs - and any DMO faced with similar circumstances - is whether they are doing enough to warn visitors. Are they avoiding drawing attention to the situation? Have they got it just about right? Should they ignore it altogether and focus on bringing visitors to the region despite the disaster hanging around on the shoreline?