Clark extends education with annual program on Georgia Campus

Sonia Outlaw-Clark, director of the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center is among three area tourism professionals who have completed their second year of STS Marketing College in Dahlonega, Georgia. Pictured with Clark are (from left) Jackson Tenn. Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Lori Nunnery, Clark, STS Vice President of Communications and Public Relations Neville Bhada, and Shiloh National Military Park Superintendent Woody Harrell.

Sonia Outlaw-Clark, director of the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, Tenn., has completed the second year of a three-year professional development program that will lead to certification as a Tourism Marketing Professional (TMP).

Clark was one of 232 tourism professionals enrolled at the Southeast Tourism Society Marketing College last month.  The week-long program turns the facilities of North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega, Ga., into a laboratory to teach tourism marketing each summer.

There is no other professional development program like STS Marketing College, and it is recognized nationally for its training of tourism leaders. 626 people have earned TMP certification.

“In the tourism industry, TMP certification carries a lot of weight,” said Bill Hardman, president and CEO of the Southeast Tourism Society, a 12-state organization that promotes travel and tourism in the Southeast.

The STS Marketing College began in 1992 to provide continuing education for tourism professionals and feted its 20^th anniversary this year.  Tourism ranks as the first-, second- or third-largest industry in each STS member state. Students come from convention and visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce, attractions, hotels and other segments of the tourism industry.

The curriculum covers topics such as branding, social media, packaging and sports marketing.  Heritage tourism and research are courses that have attracted special interest in recent years.

Twenty-four senior executives in the travel and tourism industry were the volunteer faculty. 

The program attracts students from throughout the Southeast and occasionally from other states.  This year’s program included students from Maryland and Oklahoma.

“Southeast Tourism Society is recognized nationwide for the cohesiveness and camaraderie it fosters in the region.  No other region in the U.S. has a similar organization.  STS Marketing College is a major project to build skills and professionalism in the tourism industry,” Hardman said.