Originally published in the March 6, 2007 edition of The Lantern. It is posted here unedited.
New passport requirements have created a roadblock for some students looking to make last-minute spring break plans.
“Places like Cancun and the Caribbean are seeing far less student traffic this year,” said Paul Tedeschi, chief executive of Mr. Youth Travel agency in New York.
In January, the U.S. Department of State issued new passport requirements for all people leaving the country. Now, places Americans did not need passports to travel to before – such as Mexico, Canada and some Caribbean countries – all require them for reentry into the United States.
“A lot of kids were caught off guard this year with the passport change,” Tedeschi said. “So now, students who normally would go to Cancun or somewhere like that are saying, ‘Now where do I go?’”
That is where Tedeschi comes in.
Tedeschi said Mr. Youth is the only travel agency to market one destination exclusively.
The place? Panama City, Fla.
The marketing gimmick? No passports.
“We’ve had a huge increase in Web traffic at our Web site already, and we expect a drastic increase in numbers this year,” Tedeschi said. He also said the new regulations helped his business.
“If we can market Panama City Beach as a luxury destination that doesn’t require a passport, we’re going to do it,” he said.
Patrick Carr, a senior in family finance, said he did not want to deal with the hassle of getting a passport. Instead, he’s making the trek to Daytona Beach, Fla.
STA Travel, a global student travel agency that operates a branch on the OSU campus, has not noticed a decrease in student activity since the new passport law went into effect.
“If a student needs 20 passports, they’ll get 20 passports,” said Ginny Ophof, manager of STA Travel.
Fewer students, however, are heading to the typical spring break destinations, Ophof said. Instead, they are looking toward lesser-known destinations in Mexico.
“It used to be Daytona and Cancun, but now both of those places are a bit high school-ish and, well, crap,” she said.
Don’t tell Patrick Carr.
The junior in political science is enrolled in an OSU Near Eastern Language and Culture course, where students spend the quarter learning about the history of Egypt and culminating the course with a week-long trip to the ancient country.
Yocco will make the trip with 60 classmates, staying in a five-star hotel, he said.
“We’ll see the pyramids and Alexandria,” Yocco said. “It’s going to be a wrap-up of everything we’ve learned. I can’t wait.”
