By Dr. Richard Kelley

Each spring, hordes of students flock to Hawaii. The hotels fill up, local businesses get busy, and kama‘aina go to work. We love the opportunity to host these guests, and we appreciate their wonderful impact on our economy.

If you walk around Waikiki at this time of year, you’ll see large groups of students, some of them decked out in matching uniforms, and all of them shopping, eating, buying souvenirs, and boarding buses to go out on activities. Kapiolani Park fills up with young adults practicing sports, playing instruments, and just getting together. Surfboards are all checked out, catamarans are full, and hotel pool decks are packed with sunbathers. As evening falls, Kalakaua Avenue comes alive, as the students hit the restaurants, shop, and enjoy the lively social scene.

Right now, we are at the height of the spring break season. Some schools release their students as early as mid-February and some as late as the third week of April; the peak of the season this year was the week of March 15-19.

In Hawaii we are lucky to have a well-behaved group of young adult visitors. Many arrive on escorted tours with adult chaperones and take an active interest in the many educational and cultural opportunities the Islands have to offer.

Not all destinations are so lucky. Some attract a far different crowd, bent on heavy partying all night and sleeping all day. After months of cold winter, long hours of studying, and exposure to a few wild videos, some students stampede to beachside resorts expecting that “anything goes.” They target resorts with lax drinking laws, yard-long margaritas, buckets of beer, and a reputation for hedonism. Some budget travel companies are more than happy to provide cheap transportation for those who can’t find a car to pile into.

Popular destinations known for wild spring break activities include several Florida destinations, such as Daytona Beach, Panama City, and Miami’s South Beach. South Padre Island, Texas, also has a reputation as a really wild place for spring break travelers.

For these areas, spring break is a mixed bag. The special Web sites they develop to promote spring break indicate they like the business. However, if the partying is not carefully monitored and controlled, the resulting chaos can be not only dangerous, but also destructive and financially taxing on the host destinations.

Mexican resort areas used to be very popular spring break destinations, but the recent surge of narcotics-related violence has prompted the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City to advise American citizens to use extreme caution and delay unnecessary travel to the Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila, and Chihuahua. While none of these is along the coast – and thus not a prime spring break destination – the advisory may cool things down a bit further south in resorts like Cancun.

Fortunately, not all students are looking for a wild party. In fact, many are looking for a relaxing vacation, competition in a school-sponsored event, or even an educational or service-oriented week.

Many take part in a growing “alternative spring break” movement in which students share their energy and enthusiasm with activities like, for example, helping build homes in Appalachia, registering voters in rural Mississippi, working with the homeless in Washington, D.C., or tutoring migrant farm workers in Florida. Others spend their week off in Latin America, China, Russia, and other international locations to work in a variety of helpful activities. (For information about opportunities like these, see www.alternativebreaks.org or www.crossculturalsolutions.org.

In Hawaii, we’re fortunate to get more than our share of the kind of young guests who are looking for good, clean fun. Once again, Hawaii shines as a safe and affordable vacation destination.

By Dr. Richard Kelley

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