( CNN ) -- `` Everyone agrees we need to go forward with the relief well , '' National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Friday of the now-plugged BP gusher in the Gulf , adding that officials are now considering other options in addition to the relief well . Work will resume on a relief well as scientists and BP engineers continue to assess whether a planned `` bottom kill '' is necessary , he said . The BP oil well , which ruptured April 20 after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig , spilled more than 2 million gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico before being successfully shut . Allen said that pressure tests were finished and that pressure within the wellhead was unchanged . That means there are options about how to handle the well , which has stopped pouring oil into the Gulf , he said . `` We have successfully shut in this well . We have something now that we have n't had before and we have we have -- I would n't call it a luxury -- but we have the trade space to consider alternatives under less than a high-pressure situation . '' Allen said crews probably did `` too good a job on the top kill . '' Cement and mud got into a core area of the well . But Allen said it 's not clear how thick the cement layer is , or how vulnerable it might be to pressure inside the well . `` Everyone agrees we need to go forward with the relief well , '' Allen said . `` The relief well will be finished . How it gets finished will be determined on risk mitigation and the way forward is the essence of what is being discussed right now . The relief well will be finished . We will kill the well . '' As they await answers about the condition of the well , businesses in the Gulf Coast are hoping high-profile visitors will help boost local economies . President Obama and his wife , Michelle , plan to travel to the region this weekend to support businesses that have been devastated by the oil disaster . One of their daughters , Sasha , will join them for the trip . Their other daughter , Malia , is at a camp and will not make the trip , a senior administration official said . The family will leave Saturday morning for Panama City Beach , Florida . `` Even as the president talks about what our next steps are in our response , obviously part of this will be highlighting the tremendous economic toll that has taken place , '' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters earlier this week . Visitors spent more than $ 34 billion in 2008 in congressional districts along the Gulf Coast , sustaining 400,000 jobs . The effects of the oil spill on the region 's travel industry could last up to three years and cost up to $ 22.7 billion , according to an analysis conducted last month by Oxford Economics for the U.S. Travel Association . In preparing the research , Oxford Economics looked at current spending , government models predicting oil flow and the effect of 25 past crises on tourism to develop a model to gauge the Gulf disaster 's impact . Case studies of past disasters -- including the SARS respiratory disease outbreak , Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Asian tsunami -- show that tourism often is affected beyond the disaster area and long after the resolution of the crisis . To mitigate the effects of the disaster , changing perceptions is key . `` The president will meet with those folks and have a chance to update , I think , the region on where we are , '' Gibbs said . `` And I think it will be important for the president to talk about what are the next steps in bringing the region back . '' Meanwhile , work is expected to resume Friday on the drilling of a relief well that is intended to give engineers a better look at the core of the well . Pressure tests will help them make a recommendation to former Adm. Thad Allen , the federal government point man on the disaster , on whether a bottom kill is necessary to permanently seal the ruptured deepwater oil well . The well erupted after an April 20 explosion aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon that left 11 dead . A temporary cap contained the spill on July 15 , and nearly 3,000 barrels of heavy drilling mud and cement drove the oil back under the ocean floor last week in the static kill process . The well gushed an estimated 53,000 barrels ( nearly 2.3 million gallons ) of oil per day before it was capped . Since then , fresh , green grass has started growing again in some of the hardest-hit marshes of southern Louisiana , but oil continues to wash ashore in some places . CNN 's Vivian Kuo contributed to this report .
NEW : Work on relief well will resume . NEW : Unchanged pressure in wellhead gives crews more options on killing well . The first family will travel to Panama City Beach , Florida , Saturday . Financial effects of the spill could hurt area businesses for up to three years .