Honourable Bill Bennett Visits LinkBC Partners
British Columbia Tourism Minister Bill Bennett visited College of the Rockies’ Cranbrook Campus on April 7 to connect with LinkBC: the tourism & hospitality education network, and students and faculty from two of LinkBC’s 20 education partner institutions, College of the Rockies (COTR) and Selkirk College.
Bennett, also MLA for Kootenay East, took the opportunity to interact with students from COTR and Selkirk tourism and culinary programs. The event also featured the unveiling of a new website designed to attract more students to study tourism and hospitality in B.C.
The website, at www.studytourisminbc.ca, highlights LinkBC’s education partners and provides prospective students with information on adventure tourism, culinary, hospitality management, and tourism management programs offered across the province.
Students from Selkirk were warmly welcomed by their colleagues at College of the Rockies, where they shared highlights of their academic experiences and future plans for working in the industry. Selkirk students Lee Richmond (Ski Resort Operations) and Bobbi Haggard (Resort and Hotel Management) shared their positive impressions of the session: “It was an awesome afternoon,” said Bobbi. “The future of the industry is youth, and the future of the province is tourism; this was a great opportunity,” added Lee.
The group of students also enjoyed the unique opportunity to chat with Bennett about careers in tourism and hospitality in the province and the future of the industry. “British Columbia’s tourism industry is one of the strongest in the world,” Bennett said, “and we will remain competitive thanks, in great part, to the efforts of colleges and universities across the province in educating and training the workforce of the future.”
In addition to students from the network’s Kootenay Rockies-based institutions, the group welcomed Chris Dadson, President of the Kootenay Rockies Tourism Association, and a key partner in the Study Tourism and Hospitality in BC initiative. The association recently supported this long-term strategy with a pilot placement of an advertorial piece about COTR and Selkirk with the www.studytourisminbc.ca web address in a guide sent out to 200,000 potential visitors to the region.
“When industry links with education,” said Dadson, “British Columbia emerges as an even more powerful tourism destination.” LinkBC general manager Terry Hood, also a presenter at the session, added that “our network exists to make these connections between industry and education and we look forward to enjoying the success of our campaign to attract even higher numbers of top-notch students to all corners of the province.”
First published on April 17, 2009
