US President Barack Obama is visiting Florida, to encourage more tourists to visit the Gulf coast now that BP's ruptured oil well has been plugged.

The Obamas set sail aboard a pleasure boat from Panama City. Obama and his family are on a weekend trip, trying to show by example that the region is fit for tourists to enjoy.

Obama has pledged to restore the economy and the environment in the aftermath of the world's worst offshore oil spill.

The White House scheduled the first family's trip after facing criticism that the president wasn't heeding his own advice that Americans holiday on the Gulf coast.