Travel courses still attractive to students

AUBURN – The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks took a heavy toll on the nation’s tourism industry, but they didn’t send Maine students enrolled in travel and hospitality programs searching for other majors.

“I’ve talked to people getting ready to graduate and they’re still very excited,” said Laurie St. Pierre, director of continuing education and adviser for the travel and hospitality programs at Mid-State College.

St. Pierre said only one of the Auburn school’s 20 students enrolled in the programs had switched majors since the attacks.

Other schools in Maine and outside of the state report similar patterns.

At Husson College, which has campuses in Bangor, Caribou and Portland and a site in Lewiston, none of the 18 students in the hospitality program has left. All 17 of Central Maine Technical College’s hospitality management students remain in the Auburn school’s program despite the terrorism.

Marianne Coulson, education coordinator for the Hogan Family Foundation, a California nonprofit organization that promotes travel and tourism, said she toured Western states with the foundation’s mobile classroom after Sept. 11 and was greeted by huge turnouts.

“We actually saw about 500 more people than we anticipated,” said Coulson. “This was probably one of our most successful tours to date.”

Coulson said students are sticking with travel and tourism programs because they believe the industry will improve soon.