• by Tanya Gazdik , March 12, 2024

While most tourism campaigns aim to attract out-of-towners, Miami Beach is sending a stern message to drunk spring-breakers: Stay away. 

“Fed up with rowdy college kids doing the sort of things rowdy college kids do in a haze of endorphins, alcohol and other intoxicants, the city has spent $250,000 on a slick campaign including a video that declares it’s ‘breaking up with spring break,’” according to Bloomberg.  “Newly minted Mayor Steven Meiner is now implementing a crackdown that was a pillar of his campaign last year. During the two busiest weekends in March, there will be drunk-driving checkpoints, a 6 p.m. curfew on the beach and no access to city garages or sidewalk seating on famed Ocean Drive.”

Two fatal shootings in 2023 led to a state of emergency and a midnight curfew in the popular destination for partying college students, according to CNN. 

“This isn’t working anymore,” a young actor says in a viral YouTube video announcing the “breaking up” campaign. “And it’s not us. It’s you. We just want different things.”

Melissa Berthier, director of communications for the city of Miami Beach, told Yahoo News that the campaign follows years of “lawless behavior and a string of violent acts in recent years.” In the last two years, police made over 1,000 arrests and confiscated over 100 guns.

“The message is clear that Miami Beach is no longer a place for raucous behavior and that our laws and regulations will be fully enforced,” Berthier said. “There may be trade-offs, but we cannot tolerate another year like the last few, which threatens Miami Beach.”

Miami Beach isn’t the only city fed up with college kids' bad behavior. 

Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he was dispatching 140 state troopers throughout the Sunshine State — 45 of them in Miami Beach — to keep spring-breakers in check.

Spring-breakers interviewed by Axios said they saw the city's viral marketing video announcing the spring breakup and had noticed smaller crowds this year amid the city's ramped-up policing.

The New York Post proclaimed that spring break was a "bust," and business owners said customers were scared off by the city's crackdown on party crowds, according to CBS News. 

The city's spring-break restrictions resume Thursday ahead of St. Patrick's Day weekend.