Newspaper Page Text
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4 « The Red and Black Weekend • Friday, March 5, 1993
Want to avoid spring break crazies? Try an alternative site this year
By JANELL HOBSON
Staff Writer
For all you spring breakers who
want to travel south to visit the
“Sunshine State" and still avoid
the hassles of vacationing with
wild and downright crazy college
students, you might want to con
sider alternative routes that lead
away from the Daytona Beach and
Ft. Lauderdale crowds.
Some Florida beaches, such as
Clearwater and Panama City,
hope to attract more peaceful and
sane crowds rather than compete
with other beaches such as
Daytona. But the beaches on the
Emerald Coast are not even tar
geting college students.
“We don’t market for the
spring-break crowd at all," Laurie
Soehner, a tourism assistant in
Clearwater, said. “We do get peo
ple (vacationing) here, but they
like Clearwater because it’s nice
and quiet. They’re here for a relax
ing time.”
Soehner said promotions for
Clearwater Beach are done
throughout the year without any
main emphasis during the spring
“From January to Easter, we
get a good turnout of people,” she
said, “Mostly people from the
North and from Canada. So,
spring break is not a time that we
promote; it’s just a time when ev
erybody comes down to Florida.”
Tom Cason, director of Panama
City Beach Convention and
Visitors Bureau, said that al
though Panama City usually has
around 550,000 vacationers during
the spring break, this crowd does
not get out of control.
“Spring breakers are welcomed
here,” he said. “We have enough
room for them, and they are pretty
well-behaved. We have very few
problems considering the number
of people who come here."
Cason also said that Panama
City will not do any specific mar
keting and advertising to attract
spring-break crowds. “We get our
exposure through the media,” he
said. “It’s our best selling tool."
Cason mentioned that MTV will
telecast its “Top 20 Video
Countdown” at Panama City
Beach this weekend and next.
“With MTV showing views of our
beaches, this might encourage peo
ple to come here,” he said. Cason
added that on March 13, several
national sponsors, including Coca-
Cola and Sprint, will participate in
various events giving out prizes.
“There are several reasons why
people would want to come to
Panama City,” he said. “Location
and response are the main rea
sons. Students can spend less
here, and they have less traveling
to do instead of going to south
Florida. This is why a lot of people
in Georgia prefer Panama City
Beach; our location is good.”
There are some Florida beach
es, however, that are trying to at
tract a different crowd other than
students this spring break.
Loretta Driggers, the account
manager for the Zimmerman
Agency in Florida, said that the
Emerald Coast beaches - Destin
and Ft. Walton - will instead tar
get college professors in the South.
“We’ve just completed surveys
asking professors how they would
like to spend their spring break,”
she said. “Most of them would like
to spend it at the beach, but defi
nitely away from students.”
Driggers added that the
Emerald Coast has the serenity
and comfort they are looking for
and is already termed the “Faculty
Lounge” to attract this specific
crowd.
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