Hospitality professionals are heading back to the classroom in a bid to turn students on to careers in tourism.

Volunteers from retail, hotels and other areas of the private sector are taking their message to hundreds of students to rekindle interest in Bermudians working in the industry.

And they hope to show the ten-to-16-year-old middle and senior school students the crucial link between tourism revenue and the life of each of them.

The Visitor Industry Partnership is expanding its school outreach programme as part of Island-wide efforts to revitalise tourism -- and co-ordinator Stacey Evans hopes the foundations being laid in schools will provide a rich harvest of talent in years to come.

Critical to the effort said Ms Evans, is breaking down misunderstandings about careers in hospitality.

Through presenters from different areas, supplements such as the Royal Gazette's Newspaper in Education Tourism in My Life, videos and games, the message is filtered through to the students.

They are shown how many different jobs there are -- a common perception amongst students is that to work in hospitality you have to be a waiter or chef. And that there is as much money as in international business.

During February and March volunteers have been out in seven private and public schools, and they hope to increase that to all 11 middle and senior schools.

"Visitor Industry'' is included as part of the curriculum and either VIP goes into to teach it or schoolteachers themselves do the work -- with the help of information provided by VIP.

Some of the students have been so inspired by the lessons that they want to get involved in the Tourism Appreciation Week.

So events have been organised during the week, from April 9 to 15, that they can assist with.

And the upcoming Bermuda National Tourism Conference will also see them involved. The results of a competition where students were asked to write to Tourism Minister David Allen with their ideas for improving tourism are set to be used as part of a "what I would do if I were tourism minister'' forum at the conference.

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