ATF Warns Spring Breakers to Avoid Parts of Mexico
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is warning college students to avoid Northern Mexico during Spring Break. A.T.F. agents believe all areas of Northern Mexico, especially Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, could pose risks for spring breakers. SignonSanDiego.com says the warning comes from the Los Angeles field division of the ATF. Some colleges have also warned students not to travel to Mexico for Spring Break.
Recession Has Beach Towns Courting Spring Breakers
The New York Times has an interesting article about how many tourist destinations that once frowned on spring breakers are now eagerly courting them. Some of the tourist spots had good reasons for not wanting the college revelers but they now need the business because of the economy.
The Sheraton on Grand Bahama Island, which had stopped taking student groups for the last couple of years, is now working with StudentCity.com, an online student travel agency, and accepting student groups for four-night stays in March for the agency's Bahamas Party Cruise package priced at $589, including taxes and fees.
The Pro Family Spring Break Coalition of Panama City Beach, Fla., which in 2007 put out a press release about its efforts to "fight back against college spring break," has disbanded, though the businesses that made up the group still actively market to families. For the second year in a row the city has teamed up with mtvU, MTV's college network, with two weeks of live performances and undulating student crowds from March 8 to 21.
"We've realized that we need to encourage college students to come but make sure we're not excluding families," said Dan Rowe, president of the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Even Daytona Beach, Fla., which continues to market to families rather than students, acknowledged that their business would be welcome. "We're going to try and hold out," said Tangela Boyd, a spokeswoman for the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Of course," she quickly added, "if students came we’re not going to turn them away."
Florida could get a tourism boost with some colleges telling students to avoid Mexico. There's a website about spring break in Daytona here and another here about Ft. Lauderdale.
Spring Breakers be sure to behave yourself now that some of these hotels and restaurants are welcoming you again.
Universities Warn Students to Avoid Spring Breaks in Mexico
Violence in Mexican cities including Tijuana, Juarez and Nogales has universities advising students not to Spring Break in Mexico. The violence has included shooutouts in public places like malls. Three Arizona universities are advising against it reports azcentral.com.
Universities that warn students of violence in Mexico are providing "sage advice," said Special Agent Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"We have had documented violence, attacks, killings, shootouts with the drug cartels involving not only the military but law-enforcement personnel," he said. "It is indiscriminate violence, and certainly innocent people have been caught up in that collateral damage."
Mexico's drug cartels are waging a bloody fight for smuggling routes and against government forces, dumping beheaded bodies onto streets, carrying out massacres and even tossing grenades into a crowd of Independence Day revelers - an attack that killed eight people in September.
Mangan said most of the violence is taking place in border towns and along roads at night, not at most popular tourist destinations.
MSNBC reports that last Friday the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory Friday warning of an "increasingly violent" conflict between the government and drug cartels. The U.S. Government also has an informative "Know Before You Go" page about Spring Break in Mexico here.
College students are ready for drinks and sun this Spring Break despite the threat of terrorism. Panama City Beach, the spring break leader, expects over 450,000 students this year. Spring Break means big revenues for the host town from spending by the students and from deals with companies looking to spread their brand name among the coveted young adult demographic. Other top spring break cities include Daytona Beach, South Padre Island, Cancun, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Acapulco and Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
The New York Times has an 
