{"id":215840,"date":"2015-12-03T04:00:48","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T18:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=215840"},"modified":"2015-12-03T04:00:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T18:00:48","slug":"mtec-what-is-the-no-1-reason-visitors-come-to-the-nmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mtec-what-is-the-no-1-reason-visitors-come-to-the-nmi\/","title":{"rendered":"MTEC: What is the No. 1 reason visitors come to the NMI?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-215840 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mtec-what-is-the-no-1-reason-visitors-come-to-the-nmi\/mtec-2-3\/'>MTEC-2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-215841'>\n\t\t\t\tStudents of Dandan Middle School listen to Marianas Tourism Education Council member Catherine Perry as she shares the importance of tourism and environmental protection on Nov. 2, 2015. (MTEC)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mtec-what-is-the-no-1-reason-visitors-come-to-the-nmi\/mtec-1-3\/'>MTEC-1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-215842'>\n\t\t\t\tStudents of Chacha Oceanview Middle School show their enthusiasm about winning prizes during the quiz session of the Marianas Tourism Education Council at their school on Nov. 6, 2015. (MTEC)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mtec-what-is-the-no-1-reason-visitors-come-to-the-nmi\/mtec-3-3\/'>MTEC-3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-215843'>\n\t\t\t\tMarianas Tourism Education Council chair Vicky Benavente educates students at Dandan Middle School on the marketing tool \u201cSaipan-da\u201d on Nov. 2, 2015. Saipan-da backpacks from the Marianas Visitors Authority were awarded to students during the quiz portion of the presentation. (MTEC)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>What is the No. 1 reason visitors come to the Northern Mariana Islands?<\/p>\n<p>The answer to this question\u2014nature\u2014is the highlight of presentations to middle schools being made by the Marianas Tourism Education Council. Continuing its annual outreach to schools on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, MTEC is emphasizing the importance of environmental protection to middle school students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year, we want to focus on specific tourism messages for specific age groups,\u201d said MTEC chair Vicky Benavente. \u201cFor middle school students, it\u2019s all about recognizing, appreciating, and protecting our natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MTEC presented at Dandan Middle School on Nov. 2 and at Chacha Oceanview Middle School on Nov. 6.\u00a0 The presentations also covered tourism statistics and benefits, marketing and signature events by the Marianas Visitors Authority and careers in the industry. The MTEC gave \u201cSaipanda\u201d as an example of one of the MVA\u2019s marketing tools. MVA Community Projects specialist Ryan Calvo presented information about sports and cultural events on the islands.<\/p>\n<p>MTEC plans to visit all public schools on Saipan, Tinian and Rota in partnership with the MVA.MTEC will also present to private schools upon request. Interested schools may contact Calvo at the MVA at 664-3200 \/3210 or rcalvo@mymarianas.com. (MTEC)<\/p>\n<p>Students of Dandan Middle School listen to Marianas Tourism Education Council member Catherine Perry as she shares the importance of tourism and environmental protection on Nov. 2, 2015.<em><strong> (MTEC)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the No. 1 reason visitors come to the Northern Mariana Islands? The answer&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":215841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1192,1526,212,257],"class_list":["post-215840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biba-marianas","tag-dandan-middle-school","tag-mtec","tag-mva","tag-nmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215840","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}