Good Question: How Many Of Us Go On Spring Break?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - When your high school looks like Richfield's, and your walk home is cold and snowy, daydreams of escaping to a tropical locale can be comforting.
As Spring Break season begins in Minnesota, there's a perception that everyone is going on a vacation.
On Twitter, Ray Lou wrote, "I've been hearing all month [my kid] is the only one in his WHOLE school who isn't."
How many of us do go on a vacation for spring break?
Mary Schmidt, a local teacher, says only a handful of her kids are leaving town.
"Of my 74 middle school students, eight are going on a trip of some sort," Schmidt said.
The University of Minnesota's Tourism Center projects that most Minnesotans vacation inside Minnesota, never leaving the state.
We couldn't find a specific survey asking Minnesotans about spring break, but according to Explore Minnesota - we only spend 14 percent of our total vacation money in the spring.
However, the Midwest loves spring break trips when compared to the rest of the country. AOL Travel found that almost two-thirds of Midwesterners will travel more than 500 miles from home. The survey also claims Midwesterners take longer vacations than the rest of the country during the spring - spending 5.9 days at our destinations.
According to the Census Bureau, in any given year only two out of five adults take a leisure trip on an airplane, so many more of us never get on a plane for fun at all.
And a lot of adults don't take the vacation time. Harris Interactive reports that the average American left nine vacation days unused!
