Friday, March 11, 2005

Israel Leal / Associated Press Police patrol the beaches of Cancun, Mexico, on Sunday during the spring break season. Acapulco, on Mexico's Pacific coast, is right behind or may be tied with Cancun as the most popular spring break destination, tourism officials say.

Clean, upscale Acapulco gains more spring-breakers

The Mexican city is catching up to Cancun as the hot spot for college kids.

By Will Weissert / Associated Press

David L. Langford/AP Parasailing, waterskiing, and windsurfing are popular sports on Acapulco Bay. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

ACAPULCO, Mexico -- For tens of thousands of college students fleeing frozen campuses for a week of sun, sand and Jell-O shots, spring break south of the border has a new home.

Acapulco, the Pacific playground of the 1950s for movie stars like John Wayne and Cary Grant, has become a major destination for their great-grandchildren's generation, bringing new revenue to the city's tourism industry and to travel companies in the United States.

A surge in student interest here comes as Mexico's spring break king -- the Caribbean resort of Cancun -- is taking steps to restrict the college crowd's increasingly reckless behavior and to tone down its nonstop party image.

"It's time for a change. People have been coming to Cancun for years," said Jon Lanza, a senior majoring in public relations at Seton Hall University, in South Orange, N.J. "This is a nicer place. Cleaner, more mature."

Acapulco, which has always attracted some spring-breakers, experienced a college-student boom three years ago -- despite the fact that a flight to Mexico's Pacific side is longer and more expensive for many cash-strapped undergrads.

Mario Ricciardelli, CEO of studentcity.com, a Web site devoted to spring break travel, said Acapulco is now his company's top destination and that bookings for the resort are up 70 percent from 2004, compared to a booking increase of from 10 percent to 15 percent this year in Cancun.

"Word of mouth is critical," Ricciardelli said. "Acapulco has generated a reputation as a fun, high-quality place to visit and that message is spreading."

The Student Travel Services' Web site lists Acapulco as its "fastest-growing spring break destination."

Many U.S. tourism operators expect at least 50,000 spring-breakers to descend on Acapulco this year, and others say as many as 90,000-plus could arrive. At least 100,000 spring-breakers will hit the beaches in Cancun, American industry watchers say.

Sean Keener, president of BootsnAll Travel Network, the parent company of StudentSpringBreak.com, said Acapulco "has officially tied or is near No. 1 with Cancun."

"It's not because of the beaches -- it's because they have a variety of hotels and most importantly, the people and the hotels want college students there, unlike some destinations," Keener said.

The granddaddy of Mexican resorts, Acapulco was glorified in Frank Sinatra songs and Elvis movies. Elizabeth Taylor was married here, John F. and Jackie Kennedy came on their honeymoon, and Howard Hughes spent his later years hiding out in a suite at the Princess Hotel, a pyramid-shaped icon on the exclusive Punta Diamante, or Diamond Point.

"In Cancun, you see people falling over. You see people puking," said Chris Lelli, a sophomore business major at Oakland University in Rochester, who was wading around a hotel swimming pool. "Here the clubs are fun, you drink, but there's a line most of the people don't cross."

As in Cancun, Acapulco's drinking age is 18, and bars and nightclubs crowd the resort's golden-sand bays. But many clubs here require slacks and dress shoes for men, unlike in Cancun. Also, most of the hotels in this city of 800,000 were built decades ago, offering a more traditional feel than the Caribbean resort's ultramodern facilities.

"In Cancun, it's Mexico but it doesn't feel like it," said Rob LePage, a business ethics sophomore at Wayne State University in Detroit. "Here you have more culture."