Danger: Spring break, not worth it

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 falloff" 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 dif- fered dramatically from Brunson's, with Mexican travel higher than it has been since 2009.