Tourism
BY KYLE STOCK
Of The Post and Courier Staff
Gov. Mark Sanford has named September Hospitality Education Month, kicking off a month-long fund-raising campaign by restaurants and hotels across South Carolina to collect money for high school and college hospitality programs and scholarships.
The Hospitality Association of South Carolina, the group that is organizing the drive, hopes to raise $50,000 from customers at the 200 or so restaurants and 75 hotels that are participating.
Statewide, the hospitality association drums up $150,000 in private donations every year so that 34 high schools can offer culinary and hospitality national certification programs for juniors and seniors. It expects to add about 10 more schools this month.
The association will also give away about $18,000 in scholarships for hospitality students at its dinner in Columbia Sept. 22.
Locally, the Greater Charleston Hotel/Motel Association will also be drumming up education funds with its annual scholarship dinner at the Embassy Suites Convention Center Sept. 8. The money will go to three students currently enrolled in hospitality programs at the College of Charleston, Johnson and Wales and Trident Technical College.
WORLD CUP
The WGC World Cup, to be held on The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort Nov. 11-16, will bring about $10 million to Charleston's restaurants, hotels and stores, according to Doug Lester, Kiawah's director of tournament affairs.
The resort expects about 72,000 spectators, 25,000 of whom will come from out of town. Tickets will cost between $30 and $200.
The Lowcountry coast will hit televisions around the world for 12 hours of coverage on ESPN and ABC Sports.
LOWCOUNTRY ARCHAEOLOGY
For the third consecutive year, the Charleston Museum Institute is ramping up a school to train Indiana Jones wannabes.
The museum will sign up about 20 people for an archaeology field workshop Sept. 22-26. Participants will assist archaeologists Martha Zierden and Ron Anthony in ongoing excavations at the museum's Dill Sanctuary, which includes the 18th-century Stono Plantation.
The basics of archaeology research -- gridding, recording, mapping and artifact identification -- will be taught in the field and via lectures and lab sessions back at the museum.
Members will pay $325 and non-members will be charged $350.
Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/090103/bus_01tourism.shtml