FLORENCE-Suzie Shoemaker, Sports Marketing & Special Events Coordinator at the Florence/Lauderdale Tourism Office, has earned certification as a “Travel Marketing Professional” (TMP) after completing the three-year program of the Southeast Tourism Society (STS) Marketing College.
Shoemaker was one of 37 new TMPs recognized at the STS spring meeting in Charlotte, N.C. earlier this week. STS Marketing College started in 1992 and, to date, 879 people have earned their TMP certification, including Florence/Lauderdale Tourism Assistant Director Alison Stanfield.
The STS Marketing College is a professional development program that, for one week each summer, turns the facilities of North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega, Ga., into a laboratory to teach tourism marketing.
Instructors are working professionals in the travel industry such as convention and visitors bureau executives, public relations practitioners,sales and marketing consultants and research experts.
“There is not another program like ours in the country; we are the envy of travel professionals in other regions,” said .
Bill Hardman, president and chief executive officer of STS
Course topics include special event marketing, media relations, tourism advertising, vacation research, crisis management, heritage tourism and community/rural tourism. After the classroom work, students also must complete a project that relates to their employment.
“Our curriculum is practical. What students learn can be put to use as soon as they get back to their workplaces,” Hardman said.
The newest group of TMPs raised enough to fund twelve scholarships for future STS Marketing College students.
About Southeast Tourism Society (STS)
Founded in 1983, the Southeast Tourism Society (southeasttourism.org) promotes and develops tourism in its 12 member states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Its headquarters are in Atlanta. The membership includes state travel offices, attractions, hotels, motels, resorts, convention and visitors bureaus, airlines, car rental agencies, newspapers, magazines and other travel-related organizations.
