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Search is on for top tourism team

Teams of students will be battling it out in search of success with the aid of a local TV star and tourism experts. Pupils taking part in the Showcasing Tourism project are coming to the end of their journey, which will finish with a “Dragon’s Den” style competition.

To give them a few words of wisdom before they start Suzie Devey Humpleby – contestant in Channel 4’s The Search and an MA in Tourism Management – will be the special guest speaker at the event. Suzie will be sharing her on and off screen experiences with the teams. Other special guests at the event will be the Deputy Mayor of South Tyneside and the Deputy Mayor and Mayoress of Sunderland.

The aim of the project, delivered by Sunderland-based Education Business Connections (EBC), is to promote lasting links between schools and organisations in the tourism industry. It is a follow-on from EBC’s Exploring Tourism programme which saw 50 North East students highlighting some of the top tourist hotspots in the region to an audience of Dutch travel agents in Amsterdam.

Representatives from a number of local businesses with links to the tourism industry will be there to judge how the teams do. The challenge was for each school to mount an exhibition about their chosen organisation and give out information as well as putting up posters and having other resources on hand.

Sarah Nicklin, Business Liasion Officer with EBC, said: “It’s a great opportunity for the businesses from the sector together with the work force of the future, to enable them to form a partnership for continued support. “This is a growing area for the region – with the impact of the Tall Ships coming to Hartlepool and the 2012 Olympics there are plenty of chances for young people to make their mark.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .