Thread: Students steering clear of Mexico for Spring Break

Click photo to enlargeNew Mexico State University students Rob Hancock, 23, left,... (Sun-News photo by Shari Vialpando)«1»For New Mexico State University information, click here.

LAS CRUCES — Wanda Mattiace used to gently tell spring breakers interested in visiting Jamaica that it could be a little rough. But with more than 5,600 murders in 2008 in Mexico, Mattiace, who owns Adventure Travel in Las Cruces, says "Jamaica's looking pretty good."

Interest in traveling to Mexico among high school and college students approaching spring break — March 21 to 29 this year — is about "1 percent" of what it was three years ago, she estimates.

"People say, "it's just in the border cities,' but ... they just had a shooting in Zihuanteneo and right close to that is Manzanillo. Big resorts. There's Club Med there. Cancun, Riviera Maya — a lot of those are owned by drug cartel people," Mattiace said Friday. "Last year was not as bad as this year. This year, it feels a lot worse. Last year ... I didn't feel compelled to say, "I'm concerned about your safety. You ought to reconsider.'"

With some prompting, Mattiace has shifted sales to the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Florida.

"These kids ... they want to believe that it's safe because it's what they can afford," she said. "Jamaica and the Bahamas can drink at 18. They're trying to have a fun time. That's another thing. Mexico is so lenient, but that's what makes it so darn dangerous."

The deals from Mexico she deletes almost as soon as they land in her inbox,


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she said.
"I get a blurb every day on my e-mail: "Come to this resort, half-price, free drinks, it's perfectly safe!' It's not safe. I've been doing this for a long time and I have real problems with danger, like the Middle East — war. Africa, it's health. That's way different. This is like, "Hello, come vacation in our war zone,'" she said. "I heard the silliest excuses. "Well, it's just between the drug guys. They don't care about anyone else.' You think their aim is that good?"

Mattiace says she'd rather turn away customers than bite her tongue and not be able to sleep at night.

"Profit is one thing, but people's lives are another. And especially somebody's kid?" she said. "I can't imagine, if something like that happened."

Rob Hancock, 23, a junior studying managerial leadership and small business entrepreneurship, says students are "definitely staying in the States."

Hancock and six friends got a deal through USA Student Travel for seven nights at a hotel on San Padre Island, Texas, for $300 each. That includes seven restaurant meals, a beach keg party from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and bargain-priced VIP passes for area bars. With sandwich supplies and alcohol available at Wal-Mart, plus gas — they're splitting two cars and already have the four gas stops planned — Hancock doesn't plan on spending more than $700 for the whole week.

"We don't want to go to Mexico, for sure," he said. "Mainly because of all the violence, that and because we're all at least 21, so what's the thrill of going to Mexico when we can drink legally?"

For others, it seems, "the allure of Mexico's gone," Hancock said. The underage students he knows are mostly going home, just to save money. "For the past two years, I always heard about Mexico ... The first choice would always have been (Puerto) Peñasco. Always. The first two years I was here, the first year, everyone, that's all they talked about."

Rita Romero says while son Jacob, 21, is studying in Monterrey, Mexico, he's coming back to Las Cruces for spring break. Daughters Jessika, 22, and Erika, 24, also NMSU students, are planning to go to Tucson, maybe to watch baseball spring training.

"We would love to go down for day trips. Even that is just too — why risk it, you know? Why risk it? So they know very well not to go down there," she said.

Things have changed, she said, from when Erika first started going to NMSU. "Thursdays, everyone would head down to Mexico. There would be these 2 a.m., 3 a.m. phone calls, "Hi Mom, I'm in Mexico and having fun!' And now, that just doesn't happen anymore ... Why put yourself in that much danger for a 75-cent beer?"

Romero acknowledges that NMSU could smother the students with warnings about spring break in Mexico, but "ultimately, they're adults. They're going to do what they want to do regardless and sometimes, it'll have the opposite effect. "I'm invincible. Nothing's going to happen to me.'"


Ashley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5462



Spring Break Do's and Don'ts


http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_11868885?s ... ost_viewed

How about these students help other Americans out and spend their vacation dollars in the U.S?

That is a great idea...and I would also make sure the hotels I stayed in only employed Americans. Remember the young girl from Alabama who stayed in a motel in Kentucky last fall? Besides, why patronize any business who doesn't employ Americans and legal immigrants, right?