Cities sell themselves to college students over Spring Break

For sale -- Panama City Beach, Cancun, Myrtle Beach, Montego Bay -- for the duration of one month. Contact your travel agent for prices. Believe it or not, many cities literally sell themselves to college students during the month of March. Travel agencies and independent business owners spend large amounts of money targeting college students across the United States and Canada, according to a news release from ConciergeConsultants of Fort Lauderdale. The businesses post flyers and take out advertisements in campus newspapers promoting the "rental" of their cities to students looking for vacation sites. Flyers promising white sand beaches, blue waters, night clubs, hot sun and hotter bods -- what the companies dub as paradise -- are all a part of the publicity campaigns for the promotion of Spring Break tourist spots. These business owners have probably learned a lesson from the Fort Lauderdale's decision to discourage the annual gathering in their city. In 1989, city politicians in Fort Lauderdale decided they no longer wished to have their city invaded by college students during Spring Break, according to the ConciergeConsultants news release. Students got the message. They left Fort Lauderdale and took with them more than $175 million in revenue, a loss from which the beach community has never recovered. Now private business owners in the area have started their own campaign to bring back the students and with them, economic stability. A flyer promoting package deals to Cancun and the Bahamas caught the eye of College sophomore Amy Rosenberg. Seeing it prompted her to search for more information about the hot spots advertised. Rosenberg and seven of her friends plan to stay in the Bahamas during the week of Spring Break. "I actually wanted to go to Cancun," Rosenberg said. "But one person in our group was dead set against it, so we are going to the Bahamas." Wharton junior Dave Coughlin started planning to go away last semester. However, it was just a week and a half ago that he and his friends decided their destination would be Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. He heard about the area from friends who had been there previously. "We chose Myrtle Beach because it is shorter in terms of distance than other places, so we were saving gas and time," Coughlin said. "It is also not a typical Spring Break spot so we got a good deal with the hotel." College sophomore Mike Barrett, founder of the Penn Spring Break Club, was also attracted by the idea of a vacation spot that was not frequented by many people. "Cancun has too much of a club atmosphere -- loud nonstop partying," he said. "I have been planning to go to Nassau since last year because it is very relaxing." While some students looked for beach vacations, others chose alternative places. Wharton and Engineering sophomore Matt Finkelstein plans to go skiing in Vermont with some friends. "We were going to go to Mexico or Florida, but those ideas never panned out," Finkelstein said. "Then we all decided that we wanted to go skiing." College sophomore Leslie Metzger sums up the Spring Break attitude for all students -- whether renting out a typical Spring Break city, hiding at an unknown beach spot, skiing or even going home. "I just basically want to give my brain a rest," Metzger said.