Chamber discusses Spring Break

The South Padre Island Chamber of Commerce and residents met on Feb. 9 to discuss plans for Spring Break 2023 during this month’s Coffee and Conversation.
City Manager, Randy Smith, is preparing to spend his 14th Spring Break on the Island.
“Spring Break isn’t what it used to be,” Smith said. “Our numbers have still been [really] good, but we’ve been desperately trying to move more towards a more family atmosphere.”
The Island has a lot of tenured staff that have been doing spring break for years, where the mysteries always are the promoters and performers, said Smith.
“We don’t really learn about [those events] until right at the end,” Smith said.
Smith said that the city is preparing for what will happen, will continue to hire the right people, and will do the right things to ensure traffic is flowing, the jail is running safely, and the events are monitored.
“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on,” said Smith. “We have our situational awareness team that is [located] at city hall where they sit behind all these computers and monitor any massive parties that may break out or other illegal activity that [isn’t] allowed.”
CVB Director Blake Henry is preparing to spend his first spring break on the Island.
“Last March [the island] had over 2.1 million visitors, and we expect that number to increase this year,” Henry said.
Booking windows have shortened; Normally, Spring Break bookings take up around 21 days in March, and now they are only taking up 18 days, Henry said. Although the days have become shorter, bookings have become higher.
“Short-term rentals are currently at a higher rate than hotel bookings, which means that the Island is expecting more families to visit this year,” Henry said.
For many collegiate visitors, this will be their first time on the Island, and the biggest attraction for them is the concert headliners, said Henry.
“The first concert will begin on March 11 and run through the week ending on March 18,” Henry said. “To see the headliners and anything related to the concerts, you can visit the Spring Break page on Sopadre.com.”
Chief of Police, Claudine O’ Carroll, is prepared for the coming month as she is getting ready to spend her 25th Spring Break on the Island.
“We’ve reached out to all our partners, as we always do; Texas Parks and Wildlife, Homeland Security, DPS, and surrounding areas have all committed to supporting us [as they did last year] this spring break,” O’ Carroll said.