Spring Break
Brooke Basile
The massive migration to warmer cities during the months of march and april, during high school and college student’s spring break weeks is something that occurs every year. While locals may not enjoy the crowded cities and beaches, the local businesses enjoy the massive profits.
Places like Panama City have future expectations of the benefits of spring break, have funded a $400,000 advertising campaign to attract students from their frozen home towns. The suppliers will supply more and more spring break products like swim suits, sunscreen, and hotel rooms, and will be more willing to, since they are expecting the price to go up as these things are more in demand. However, because of competition within similar products produced by different suppliers, the prices of many goods and services have gone down as well.
On the consumer side of it, spring break has become an almost inelastic good. Despite the increasing prices of travel, millions of students do it every year. While some families and students would cancel their plans if it became too expensive, they thousands continue to spend money on it which is why instead of being an elastic good, it has become inelastic. For Panama city, spring breakers bring in one third of the yearly profits to the local businesses.
Works Cited
Kohn, David. "Spring Break Exposed." CBS News. CBS Interactive, 26 Apr. 2002. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/spring-break-exposed/>.
Thompson, Derek. "2,000 Years of Partying: The Brief History and Economics of Spring Break." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/2-000-years-of-partying-the-brief-history-and-economics-of-spring-break/274347/>.
Vacationing is very common for families to participate in during the transition to Spring. Places like Florida, California, and Mexico are very common spots for a get away. Like you said in your post, Places like Florida have hotels everywhere so pricing for rooms are very competitive. When booking, adults can look for cheaper rooms based off of the prices in the more competitive areas to receive the best deal. Spring break will continue to be popular as long as the competition of hotels and sights are at a high causing a lower price for booking.
ReplyDeleteI believe families are willing to pay the expensive cost of going on vacation for spring break, because to them it is worth the opportunity cost. It benefits both the vacationers because they are having fun, and the city because it is making a profit from hotels, stores, and other activities that cost money. The city is also able to raise its prices on items such as sunscreen for example, because they know people will have to buy it and will purchase it even if the price is raised.
ReplyDeleteSpring Break is a very interesting topic when looking at costs and benefits. For some families going on vacation is a rarity because they would much rather save than spend money. For others it is an annual event to take a break. It gets interesting when you look at household income. Many families you would not expect to be going on vacation every year do and it baffles me. This is also the case with college students who claim to be broke but then why are they going on these expensive vacations? Spring Break is a very interesting topic and to me it is very over hyped.
ReplyDeleteSpring Break is a very interesting topic when looking at costs and benefits. For some families going on vacation is a rarity because they would much rather save than spend money. For others it is an annual event to take a break. It gets interesting when you look at household income. Many families you would not expect to be going on vacation every year do and it baffles me. This is also the case with college students who claim to be broke but then why are they going on these expensive vacations? Spring Break is a very interesting topic and to me it is very over hyped.
ReplyDeleteSpring break is a very big thing that happens every year. But is it really worth it? Since its so expensive to go every year and spending all the money on other things. And also the cost of the beach people who have to pick up all the garbage. There is a lot of garbage from spring break and other things that happen so is it really worth it?
ReplyDeleteSpring break vacation is all definitely something a lot of people can relate to, especially living in colder towns and going to warmer cities. I agree that suppliers supply more necessities for vacation hot spots, but do they increase their prices to gain a larger profit. Since those are things that students and vacationers need, those individuals are willing to pay no matter what the price to get what they need. Although, if the prices are overly expensive they may either not buy it at all or go somewhere cheaper. Spring break locations do gain massive profits, but are some businesses raising their price too much?
ReplyDeleteSpring break is the most looked forward to break of the year, besides summer vacation. I do see why suppliers increase their prices because they know that it is that time of year where people like to get away and go somewhere warm and even if there is a rise in price, people and families are still going to pay because for most, this is their big vacation of the year. Panama city being one of the top vacation spots for college students will have higher prices, because of large amount of people that will becoming in. I do think that even though suppliers are gaining from spring break and all of the vacationers, the vacationers are gaining from this too, because they receive a nice vacation with warm weather.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most difficult parts of scheduling a vacation during spring break is that due to a fixed supply of hotel rooms and places to stay in popular destinations such as Florida and Mexico, paired with a rising demand, the price to go on trips during this time skyrockets. The increase in price is due to the fact that resorts know that most consumers have a limited amount of time that they are willing to travel so that they do not miss much school. This increase in price can help bolster a nation or state's economy with a warm climate due to the exponential increase in tourism. Because it is over a short time period, a nation can recover so they don't experience any harmful long-term inflation due to the rise in aggregate demand.
ReplyDeleteI would be curious to how much other cities spend on advertising, or how much revenue they actually make from spring break. I know that Panama City is a popular place for people to go to but there is so many different cities that people go to and spend their time and money at. Also, certain cities may be more popular than others or cost more depending on where people stay and spend their money. Overall, spring break is an interesting topic and truly fascinating to think about how much money businesses make during that prime time of year.
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