Quote:
Originally Posted by jsmitty33
I liked the points ya made throughout steve and was getting very annoyed with the Durta's. I was getting the impression that their number one goal was to end spring break. They obviously did some research I would assume before they moved to pcb and knew exactly what they were getting into. . . .
Bottom line is Springbreak isn't going anywhere anytime soon regardless of the amount of money being spent to advertise. . . .
The only negative thing I can say about pcb is you guys built way way too many condos in a short period of time. How are people even going to complain about them being empty when they exploaded so fast?
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JSmitty33,
I have been staying out of the discussion on this forum since most of you love College Spring Break which is definitely your right. But since you decided to mention me by name, I figured it was time to get involved. I will say my peace and hopefully we can both decide to just accept each other's opinion and move on.
Yes, it is my opinion that PCB would be better off without College Spring Break as we know it today. College students from the southeast will always come here, but I would like to see us stop trying so hard to be the Spring Break Capitol of America just as every other destination in Florida has decided to do. If we could rid ourselves of the spring break image, I believe our year-round tourism would grow and I believe we would be more successful in attracting year-round residents. However, I do understand that others disagree and neither side has the clear evidence to prove the other wrong. So we need to agree to disagree.
As far as you mentioning that I have only lived here 6 years compared to some College Spring Break proponents living here much longer, we came here because PCB was changing. We just want to do our part to make sure it continues happening. I believe if looked deeper, you would find that there are many long-term residents who agree that our tourism industry went down the wrong path when they decided to try to attract the national spring break business back in the mid-90s. It is not like all long-term residents think College Spring Break is great.
Concerning the condos, our community definitely built more than there is current demand for. But we can't just tell the owners that they made a mistake and should just accept them being empty. We are already experiencing year-round downward pressure on rental rates of both condos and hotels as a result of too many units chasing after too few tourists. We now need to do everything possible to quickly attract more tourists year-round to save our economy. Some of us believe that trying to rid ourselves of our College Spring Break reputation will help.
As you probably already know from my writings on the MTV situation, I agree with you that our MTV situation is a joke. I believe our government should quit spending tax dollars on College Spring Break expenses like this. That $150,000 could have been better spent in trying to attract the year-round tourists we need.
Thank you,
Bryan Durta