MTEC chairwoman Vicky I. Benavente, who was yesterday’s speaker at the Saipan Rotary Club meeting at the Hyatt, said when the council started organizing the Marianas Youth Welcome All Visitors Enthusiastically or My WAVE Clubs in the Public School System, they had about 600 members.
With the economic depression and the rising price of gasoline, Benavente said membership is now down to just about a hundred now.
“My WAVE Club volunteers use their own cars and gas and their own time after work to organize these groups, but the number of volunteers have also reduced with the hard times,” she added.
Benavente, a former Marianas Visitors Authority managing director, said My WAVE Clubs are formed so students may have hands-on involvement in the visitor industry and get educated on the social and economic benefits of tourism.
“From January to April this year, we visited 10 public and private schools and formed five My WAVE Clubs,” Benavente said.
They met with junior and high school students then moved on to the elementary schools later this year.
According to Benavente, when asked what lures tourists to visit the CNMI, the students cited beach, sun, shopping, sports competitions such as XTERRA and Tagaman triathlons, marathons and fishing derbies. The students also mentioned relaxation, golf and diving as among the islands’ attractions.
Benavente said some students also believe that the people and the way of life here also attract tourists.
She said through the My WAVE Clubs, students become aware about the importance of tourists having a wonderful and fun vacation here because “they will tell others about the islands and the word gets out that this is a great place to go on a vacation.”
Benavente said children understand the economics surrounding the islands’ tourism industry.
“The students are aware that if tourists don’t have good time here, they won’t come back, and that means no money would flow in, and if the government doesn’t have money, there will be no money to supply books to the schools, repair roads, parks and beaches, and no money to upgrade our hospital,” she added.
“As much as possible, we will start our tourism campaign with the students when they are still young, when they will still listen,” Benavente said.
