Grants

 

Travel South Cares!

Tourism Cares and Travel South USA are pleased to award a $5,000 grant to the Georgia Aquarium and Georgia Sea Turtle Center for their Save the Sea Turtles Project.

 

Funds were raised during the 2011 Travel South Showcase by offering plush turtles and Tourism Cares wristbands to delegates for donation which were then matched by both Tourism Cares and Travel South. 

  

The Georgia Aquarium, in conjunction with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, will put the grant money raised during the Showcase toward sea turtle conservation and rehabilitation.  Last year alone, the Georgia Aquarium and Georgia Sea Turtle Center worked together to successfully rescue, rehabilitate and release more than a dozen animals affected by a single severe cold stun event. Without specialized veterinary care, appropriate facilities and community support, emergencies like this would go without response.  

 

In other grant news: The upcoming Tourism Cares Worldwide Grant round will open for applications in early April. Please visit the Grants page of our website for more information.  

 

Scholarships

 

From Scholarship Winner to GWU Professor

Contributed by Stuart Levy, PhD, Assistant Professor Department of Tourism and Hospitality

 

Looking back, it is quite easy to see how Tourism Cares (formerly the National Tourism Foundation) influenced my career path. Now, I am a faculty member in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management at George Washington University. But back in 1993, I was just a wide-eyed university student with a passion for travel. Thanks to the generous NTF H. Neil Mecaskey Scholarship, I spent a very memorable week at the NTA Annual Convention in Atlantic City. I vividly remember shadowing destination marketers as we met with tour operators, attending seminars, and networking with fellow students and industry professionals. Attending the NTA Convention was perhaps the most valuable experience of my undergraduate years at Cornell, and helped convince me to enter the tour operating business with Tauck Tours upon graduation.

 

After several years, I went on to broaden my horizons within the world of tourism and hospitality, gaining experience in the areas of hotel consulting, government policy, and Internet marketing. I nurtured my love for learning throughout by pursuing advanced management degrees (with a focus on tourism) at Georgetown University and the University of Calgary.

 

After graduation, I joined Florida International University as a visiting professor. In 2007, I returned to Washington DC to teach in our fast growing hospitality management program at GW. Things truly came full circle a month ago, when Bruce Beckham and Robin Tauck came to GW for a meeting. Was it nearly two decades ago that I first shook Bruce's hand in Atlantic City, thanking him for the opportunity to engage with this incredible industry? Was it almost that long ago when I proudly wore my Tauck green jacket during my first job out of school?

 

I'm tremendously pleased that I am able to give back to Tourism Cares, albeit in a small way. Students in my Internet marketing course are working with Tourism Cares on a Google pay-per-click campaign. This project will attract donors, students, and other visitors to the website and help raise awareness for this wonderful organization. 

 

 

Volunteer Projects

 

Mystic is On My Bucket List

Contributed by Kelly Tyner, The Group Travel Leader

 

When I heard Tourism Cares was going to Mystic, Connecticut this year, I knew I had to be there!  Everyone has movies and books that serve as benchmarks for growing up, and the movie, Mystic Pizza, was one of mine.  As a high school junior, I remember watching Julia Roberts in that movie and it has always served as a snapshot of New England in my mind's eye ever since.

 

To say that Mystic is on my "bucket list" may seem a bit over the top, but everyone has places like that that they'd like to visit to get in touch with a bygone period of their life.  For me, this work project in Mystic fits that to a "t".

 

I worked at last year's San Francisco project and I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the event itself.  There is such a feeling of accomplishment for everyone attending-it's a kinship you feel with those people on that day that cannot be duplicated.  You're either there-or you're not!

 

So I look forward to meeting all my workmates in May-and to joining someone in enjoying a Mystic pizza!

 

Join us on May 5 & 6 to make a difference at Mystic Seaport! Space is limited, so please click here for more information.