Panama City Beach earns distinction as most popular spring break destination

A new survey from TravelMag.com has named Panama City Beach the most popular spring break destination among U.S. students.

A new survey from TravelMag.com has named Panama City Beach the most popular spring break destination among U.S. students. By an overwhelming margin, the Florida hot spot outranked the second-place finisher, South Padre Island.

After analyzing Google searches, TravelMag.com devised a Top 10 spring break list. That analysis entailed comparing how often each respective destination was typed into the search engine in combination with the keyword “Spring Break.” Because the 2014 data is obviously not yet available, the months of February and March 2013 served as the comparative timeframe.

For example, the total number of searches for “Panama City Spring Break” or “Las Vegas Spring Break” was determined in combination with related searches such as “PCB spring break” or “Vegas Spring Break.” An overall sum was then calculated for each destination to devise a Top 10 list.

Coming in with a total of 156,000 spring break related searches, Panama City Beach clearly topped the rankings, more than tripling the searches for its nearest competitor. Taking the number two position was the Texas resort town of South Padre Island. It settled into second place with 51,200 searches. Lake Havasu City in Arizona rounded out the Top 3 with 35,400 searches.

In addition to Panama City Beach, three other Floridian destinations made it into the Top 10: Daytona Beach, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale. With a total of 14,100 searches, Cancun secured the title of top foreign destination for American spring breakers.

The following table lists the Top 10 most popular spring break destinations for Americans. The rankings are based on the number of related queries conducted on the Google search engine.

1. Panama City Beach (FL) 156,000
2. South Padre Island (TX) 51,200
3. Lake Havasu City (AZ) 35,400
4. Daytona Beach (FL) 19,500
5. Miami Beach (FL) 17,000
6. Cancun (Mexico) 14,100
7. Myrtle Beach (SC) 12,800
8. Gulf Shores (AL) 6,400
9. Las Vegas (NV) 6,300
10. Fort Lauderdale (FL) 6,000

Find the full information about this survey on www.travelmag.com/articles/most-popular-spring-break-destinations/

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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