Danger: Spring break ahead
DPS warns against taking the party to Mexico
By ALLAN TURNER and KRISTIN FINAN
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
March 8, 2011, 9:57PM


Offering sun, tequila and south-of-the-border bonhomie, Mexico is a veritable paradise for cash-strapped college students out for a spring break fling.

But this year's revelries, set to begin next week, have been dampened by the sternest of warnings from the DPS: Avoid Mexico and stay alive.

Last year in Mexico, a nation riven by drug violence, 65 Americans were murdered, the Texas Department of Public Safety advised. Violence, though centered in the country's north, has infiltrated some resorts frequented by students. So far this year, four U.S. citizens have been killed, among them a missionary and two El Paso teens.

Joining a U.S. State Department warning, the DPS advisory — the agency's sixth in less than 18 months — has cast a pall over some students' holiday plans.

"Heck no! No way!" University of Houston junior history major Cori Briggs responded to a cousin's invitation to a Cancun holiday. "I told her she was crazy. I'm going to Galveston."

Chimed in Fort Worth freshman Dominique Sanders, "I want to have fun, not get killed."

Continued violence in Mexico, a particularly brisk winter and a late Easter have affected the way Texans are traveling this year. According to booking numbers from discount travel website Orbitz.com, hot spots for spring break 2011 span the globe, ranging from Central America and Europe to Las Vegas and Florida.

"A ton of people are going away for spring break," said Linda de Sosa, vice president of Woodlake Travel, a Houston-based luxury travel agency. "It's not just your typical, 'Let's go down to Cancun.' I'm seeing a lot of families wanting to create experiences with their kids."

'Parents are nervous'
Cassandra Brunson, a travel agent with Travel Leaders, said the warnings have spurred a "huge fall-off" in the number of students headed for Mexico. The decline in Mexican travel reservations seems most apparent in Texas and other border states, she said. Media accounts quoting travel officials in northern cities report demand for Mexican spring break vacations remains strong.

Among her clients, though, Brunson said, "Mexican drug wars are causing a lot of them to stay away. A lot of parents are nervous about teenagers going to Mexico."

John Lindloff, of Quality Travel and Cruises, said his spring break business differed dramatically from Brunson's, with Mexican travel higher than it has been since 2009.

While warning travelers not to visit northern border cities or Acapulco, Lindloff stressed that tourists exercising common sense caution are safe in the popular resorts.

Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete, the Mexico Tourism Board's chief operating officer, sounded a similar theme, saying resort cities are "perfectly safe."

"You must keep everything in context," he said, noting that Mexico hosted 22.6 million foreign visitors last year. "The number of incidents is very minimal."

Nevertheless, he said, Mexico has tightened law enforcement in resort hotel zones and stepped up enforcement of traffic laws and restrictions on the sale of alcoholic beverages.

"Texas is one of the major markets for Mexico," he said, "and the links between Texas and Mexico are very strong."

Strong links or no, DPS warned that Mexico is a dangerous place for tourists.

"Everyone agrees the violence along the border has been pronounced, but there are still problems in tourist destinations such as Acapulco, Cancun and Mazatlan," DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said. "Our advice is pretty straightforward. We feel it's simply not worth the risk."

'An inaccurate picture'?
Jesus Almaguer, director of the Cancun Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the DPS comparison of Cancun to other parts of the country "paints an inaccurate picture."

Many looking for alternatives to Mexico have gravitated to nearby countries such as Costa Rica, Belize and Panama, de Sosa said.

"With the winter weather that so much of the country has seen, people just want to get away to a warm weather destination," said Jeanenne Tornatore, senior editor at Orbitz.com. "It's really encouraging to see people going to Gulf beach destinations, because the perception was very different last summer."

Chronicle reporter Jena Moreno contributed to this story.

allan.turner@chron.com
kristin.finan@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 63070.html

TOP 10 SPRING BREAK DESTINATIONS
Here is Orbitz.com's list of the most popular places this year, based on customer booking patterns from March 1 to April 24.

• 1. Orlando, Fla.
• 2. Las Vegas
• 3. Cancun, Mexico
• 4. Phoenix
• 5. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
• 6. Fort Myers, Fla.
• 7. Tampa, Fla.
• 8. New York
• 9. Los Angeles
• 10. Denver