\n\t\t\t\tPhotographer Del Benson shares professional insights with students of San Antonio Middle School on Jan. 13, 2015, as part of the tourism presentation by the Marianas Tourism Education Council. \n(Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nMTEC chairwoman Vicky Benavente has led the presentations for the last four years in the CNMI public and private schools. MTEC is administered by a board of directors, including Perry Tenorio of MVA, Christopher Lubi of Ernst & Young, Jonas Barcinas and Naomi Nishimura of the CNMI Public School System, Larry Lee of MTEC, James Nelson of Docomo Pacific, Christopher Concepcion of Delta Air Lines, and Gordon Marciano of PDI.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt each MTEC presentation, students are asked how they can become involved with the islands\u2019 tourism industry. At every age level, they are much more aware of the importance of taking good care of our visitors and at the same time the importance of taking good care of our natural resources,\u201d said Benavente.<\/p>\n
A number of industry professionals joined MTEC this year in the presentations, including GM Gloria Cavanagh, Robert Bansil, and Robin Sablan from Mariana Resort & Spa; photographer Del Benson, PIC Saipan executive Glenn Policare, Tony Satur of Laolao Bay Golf Resort, and Marciano.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate very much the students\u2019 enthusiasm; tourism is highly regarded as a priority. I know we are in good hands with our future tourism ambassadors taking us all to the next level,\u201d said Marciano. \u201cWe should continue to praise MTEC for their efforts to align today\u2019s stakeholders with our children to [help them] understand that there is opportunity for all in the tourism industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can really see how MTEC\u2019s tourism summits and visits to the schools are greatly increasing our younger generations\u2019 understanding of the value and importance of tourism in the Northern Mariana Islands,\u201d added Lee. \u201cThe students are actually thinking about the kinds of tourism jobs they\u2019d like to pursue and about furthering their education in the hospitality industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
MTEC\u2019s presentations to the schools included visitor demographics, language lessons, survey results, the benefits of tourism, industry jobs, and ways students can help support tourism. Giveaways were provided by Pacific Islands Club Saipan and the MVA.<\/p>\n
MTEC is a non-profit organization aimed at educating the public on the tourism industry and its importance to the community. (MTEC)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Marianas Tourism Education Council and Marianas Visitors Authority have wrapped up their annual school…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":193736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1619,1526,212,1527],"class_list":["post-193735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-glenn-policare","tag-mtec","tag-mva","tag-vicky-benavente"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}