By Sherrin Sen -- Leisure Travel News
October 16, 2000
CANCUN -- "We don't want to see half-naked, drugged spring breakers out on the streets. We want families here,"
said Richard Sutton, general director of Royal Resorts, at the recent Mexican/Caribbean Travel Mart, describing
Cancun's spring break period.
While the Mexican Caribbean resort is doing well in visitor figures, with more than two million visitors per year,
according to statistics from the Cancun Visitors and Convention Bureau (CVCB), the pros and cons of spring breakers
has long been a sticky issue. According to Sutton, Cancun receives more visitors than any other Caribbean destination,
yet he and other hoteliers here believe that the unruly students who descend on the destination each spring may
be more trouble than they're worth.
Spring break received its share of attention during the Travel Mart, when a meeting of tour operators, wholesalers,
representatives from the U.S. Consulate, the Mayor of Cancun, members of the CVCB, church groups, families and
representatives of emergency services (e.g. hospitals) met to discuss how to handle the annual problems they see.
Spring break traditionally runs from two to three weeks at the end of March to the beginning of April, depending
on when most colleges break after the winter semester.