It’s that time of year again, when millions of college students are diligently applying themselves to their homework: planning their spring break.
During roughly three weeks in late February and early March, college students in enormous numbers will take to the beaches, international haunts, cruises or other revels. Spring break is big business and one of the few travel sectors that didn’t collapse after Sept. 11, 2001. It adjusted and mutated but remained strong and growing when most of the industry fell into disarray.
Student travel, including spring break, was up 13.7 percent last year, and 2003 was up over 2002, said Michael Palmer, executive director of the Student & Youth Travel Association. “Spring break remains vital and evolving.”
Palmer, whose organization monitors and assists in youth travel, said that spring break changes over time but is constant in its growth and energy.
“Each generation of college students finds its own approach,” he said, noting that international travel is up–beyond even the “traditional” rush to the beaches of Mexico. “Cancun has been dropping since 2001, even before Sept. 11. It still draws some 100,000 students to spring break, but [students] are also looking elsewhere.”
“Mexico is very popular here, but often it’s a matter of age more than anything else,” said Megan Mitchell, a senior at the University of Connecticut. “If they’re over 21, people tend to stay in the United States–Florida or Las Vegas. If they’re under 21, they head for Mexico because of the drinking age there.”
Ft. Lauderdale, hosting spring swim meets, attracted large numbers of students a generation ago and is named as the birthplace of spring break. It has long since rejected the honor, having found that its broader tourism and business interests are not served by the image and reality of tens of thousands of partying college kids invading the city.
Although Ft. Lauderdale closed its beaches and generally made life difficult for partying, other places have stepped up to the spring-break plate. By most accounts, the top five break destinations are Panama City Beach, Fla.; Cancun; Daytona Beach, Fla.; South Padre Island, Texas; and Colorado’s ski resorts.
International breaks are on the rise, too, bouncing back from the post-9/11 anxieties that saw all such travel decline. Costa Rica, Jamaica, London, Canada and cruises are among the top choices.
At cheaptickets.com, the top spring-break international destinations predictably are the Bahamas, Mexico, Aruba, Cancun, St. Maarten, Belize City, Nassau and Ocho Rios in Jamaica. Domestically, there also are few surprises: Florida, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Atlanta, New Orleans and Washington.
“My spring-break plans involve travel to Toronto and Montreal,” said Ben Fink, a University of Chicago student. He built his March trip plans around his personal interests and booking the least expensive airplane tickets.
He also notes that at U. of C., there’s less of a beach-party mentality than at other schools.
“I’m not sure how popular the Cancun/ Miami Beach kind of spring break is. It’s definitely not too popular among people I know,” Fink said. “Eastern Europe, I know, is rapidly becoming a popular travel destination, but I am unsure of its popularity as a spring-break destination.”
And where do Miami students go as hundreds of thousands head for Miami?
“A lot of kids here take cruises. Cruises are very popular, along with Europe,” said Paul Whittier-Goa, a native of the St. Petersburg area.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
