Reading week travel
Cold days in January see a rise in bookings to exotic destinations
Joanna Bhaskaran, staff
Photo by Chelse McKee
For Feb. 18 to Feb. 22, most universities in the province will be closed for reading week but while some students may be suffering the winter blues, hundreds of U of M students will be jetting off to warm exotic locals.
Heather Malazdrewicz, the manager of Travel Cuts at the University of Manitoba, said most of the exotic packages for reading week have already been sold out, for destinations like Port Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Jamaica.
“Christmas break is a time where students usually prefer to spend time with their families and also travel is expensive during [that] time, so reading week seems like the ideal time to wind down.” said Malazdrewicz.
Many students preferred to stay closer to home. There were at least a 100 people booking air travel to parts of Canada.
Malazdrewicz also said that she noticed the cold days of winter were a strong motivation for students.
“People started booking trips in the fall for reading week last year. However, this year, although the bookings came in a little later than expected, especially during the coldest days of January, they sold out quite fast, especially to destinations like Mexico and Cuba, which have direct flights out of Winnipeg,” continued Malazdrewicz.
Katie Laird, a third-year psychology student at the University of Manitoba, says that, unlike hundreds of her fellow students, she’ll be opting out of reading week this year.
“Reading week is a very awkward time of the year to travel because [it’s] right in the middle of midterms, and on top of that, I’m a student, and travelling to an exotic destination is not a cheap option.”
A representative from Travel Cuts in Saskatchewan said that package tours were almost sold out, with 50-100 being sold in the last week. “Travelling to exotic tropical destinations for reading week seems to be quite a popular option.”
