NEWS
UW students don’t let Sept. 11 scare keep them from Thanksgiving and Spring-Break travel
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Wednesday, November 14, 2001
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may have left people shaken and afraid of air travel, but many UW-Madison students say they will return to the friendly skies, refusing to let the tragedies affect their holiday travel plans.
Some students are even making the best of the situation by grabbing cheaper tickets.
“I know a lot of people who want to take advantage of the good airfares right now,” UW junior Hillary Shulman said. “The deals are so good, and the chances of anything bad happening are slim to none.”
Some students are actually planning extra travel in order to take advantage of discounted airfares.
“I’m not afraid to travel,” UW junior Ross Tulman said. “In fact, I am going to California for Thanksgiving, and then taking extra trips to New York and Las Vegas over winter break.”
The Student Travel Association, located in Memorial Union, noticed a decrease in business after the attacks in September, but STA Manager Deanna Schuppel said things are steadily improving.
“We’ve definitely been slower; business has been down.” Schuppel said. “But over the last two weeks, things have been picking up.”
Bussing company Greyhound said they noticed the exact opposite.
According to depot manager Scott Kreisler, ridership increased significantly in the weeks following the attack, but now things are nearly back to normal.
“There has definitely been an increase in ticket sales,” Kreisler said. “But I don’t know if that’s because we are offering special discount fares over the holidays, which we have never done before.”
Schuppel said the air-travel market has shifted since Sept. 11, especially since Delta and US Airlines offered refunds to customers through the end of September and in some cases into October.
“Just in September, STA refunded over a million dollars in the state of Wisconsin alone,” Schuppel said.
However, Schuppel said, many students are returning to the skies as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach.
“We’re actually lucky as far as the travel industry goes,” Schuppel said. “We target students, and they tend to be more resilient. They definitely want to go home for the holidays, and they still want to go abroad next year. The question is whether their parents will let them. A lot of parents don’t want their kids going overseas right now.”
At the Travel Center, assistant director Dan Colleran said UW students have not yet let the events affect spring-break planning.
Colleran said the most popular spring-break destination in recent years has been Cancun.
“Last year approximately 500 students used the Travel Center to make arrangements for spring-break packages to Cancun,” Colleran said. “And we anticipate the same amount this year.”
Many students are waiting longer to book travel plans, though, Schuppel said.
“People are booking spring-break trips later now,” she said. “We haven’t sold a lot of packages yet. I do anticipate sales going up, I just anticipate it happening later in the year.”
Schuppel encouraged students to book their plans for spring break as soon as possible. “Many trips are selling out, and the best deals will book early,” she said.
