iStockphoto / felixmizioznikov
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made it clear this week his stance on spring break has not softened. He is bolstering police forces in South Florida ahead of Spring Break 2025 and made it clear that police will crack down on any malfeasance.
Speaking from the Z Hotel in Miami Beach yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was flanked by a stage full of state troopers while speaking to media. He spoked to the audience but was also addressing any spring breakers coming to Florida who are looking to have fun.
DeSantis said “we can’t have things just descend into madness, mayhem, and chaos. And it hurt businesses when that happened. It hurts residents’ quality of life. And there’s just a lot of negatives that came from that.” Governor DeSantis went on to say “There’s a lot of great reasons to want to come here, and we welcome that and we’ll continue to welcome that. But it’s got to be done in a way that is good for everybody.” There will, of course, be strict curfews again in Miami Beach this year…
This is all in direct response to borderline ‘riots’ back in Spring Break 2021 in Miami Beach. South Florida businesses were destroyed, spring breakers clashed with police, and a strict curfew of 8PM was instituted after overwhelming crowds became unruly.
After things came to a head in 2021, Miami Beach specifically has gotten strict about spring break. Last year, our governor here in Florida deployed an additional 140 state troopers to Miami Beach for spring break with directives to run DUI checkpoints, engage in crowd control, arrest people with outstanding warrants, and identify stolen vehicles, according to CBS News.
Governor DeSantis will roll out that same show of force in Miami Beach this year to protect businesses from unruly spring breakers.
Is Florida Still Friendly Toward Spring Breakers?
But when it comes to Florida, it’s not just Miami Beach where spring breakers are feeling hostility and are being fed messages of unwelcome. Up in Volusia County which is home to Daytona Beach, a sheriff recently made it clear he does not want spring breakers in his county.
The Volusia County Sheriff said he’d directed his officers to double last year’s number of citations during spring break which was already over 200. Sheriff Michael Chitwood said “law enforcement is going to be all over the place. They think we’re playing here, we’re not. We really don’t want you here. To be honest with you, nobody wants you here. They don’t bring any financial benefit here.”
‘Nobody wants you here’ is overreaching for most Floridians. Volusia County alone sees an annual economic impact of $5 billion from tourism. Do the bartenders, hotel workers, and tour guides not want those tourists to visit Florida? Have they forgotten that families go on spring break too and it’s not just college kids starting ruckus in Miami Beach?
I’m probably biased on this subject having grown up in a restaurant family here in Florida who, like many Floridians, rely/relied on tourism. In fact, tourism accounts for an estimated 10% of Florida’s overall GDP and nearly 10% of all job in Florida are catered toward tourism. But sure, tell people “nobody wants you here” during one of the peak travel seasons. That’s probably a great idea.
It seems as if what Governor Ron DeSantis is doing for spring break in Miami Beach is good. More boots on the street to prevent a tipping point from turning into chaos. But the messaging to spring breakers looking to visit Florida needs to be softened or changed. It cannot be ‘we don’t want you here’ like the Volusia County Sheriff said. And DeSantis needs to start these kinds of statements with ‘Florida welcomes every tourist who wants to come to the Sunshine State, as long as they follow the law.’
Over 1,000 arrests were made during the 2021 spring break in Miami Beach. Last year, there were just 488 arrests, 108 confiscated guns, and 7,190 traffic citations during Miami Beach spring break, according to USA Today. That’s definite improvement and a new and improved PSA was released for 2025 Spring Break:
But is the ‘law and order’ spring break good and welcomed by Miami Beach businesses and residents? Well, that answer isn’t straight-forward.
Businesses vs Miami Beach
Last year, multiple businesses (clubs) filed lawsuits against the midnight curfew imposed during spring break. Exchange Miami, Mynt and M2 filed a complaint which stated “the forced closure during Miami music week will devastate the diligently cultivated and earned brands and images of the plaintiffs. They have invested millions of dollars into the businesses and the Miami Beach community and have had no legal problems and no difficulties during Spring Break in 2023.”
Ultimately, a judge sided with the City of Miami Beach and not the local businesses who took a sizable financial hit due to the midnight curfew. M2 alone argued it would lose out on half of a million dollars due to the curfew.
So while there are certainly some businesses and residents that welcome the spring break curfew in Miami Beach, many others are losing money due to the restrictions. As a born-and-raised multi-generational Floridian, I can say it is EXTREMELY rare to see lawmakers rule against businesses so it will be interesting to see how many more years these Miami Beach restrictions continue.