We Know Lansing Like the Back of Our Hands!
Arts Council Aces CTA Training
Tourism. It’s one of the biggest boosts to Lansing’s economy and what keeps our city strong. Every year more than 4.7 million people visit Lansing, creating $472 million in economic impact for the Greater Lansing region. People like coming to Lansing–and the Arts Council wants them to help keep that trend going!
Lansing rocks!
It is for that reason that the full Arts Council staff (100% participation) decided to take the Greater Lansing and Convention Bureau’s Certified Tourism Ambassador course (well that, and our board president is on staff at the GLCVB and she strongly encouraged us).
The course is taught on-site at the GLCVB and runs about four hours, (which sounds long, but really wasn’t). About two weeks prior to the course, we each received a packet that contained about five hours’ worth of reading material. Admittedly, we all complained a little about this, but then when we started reading, we agreed that it was kind of interersting and discovered that Lansing is even cooler than we originally thought.
Helping tourists #lovelansing
The course session itself, was interactive and quite fun, actually. There were close to 20 other area #lovelansing folks ranging in age from about 21-60, and we had a really great time! We learned how to talk to people when they are new to our city and help them find local attractions and good places to eat, drink and sleep. We also learned that as strangers in a new place, they may need nothing more than a smile and a little direction or good advice.
Enthusiasm rules
We played a few games, Lansing-area trivia and such, and then at the end of the day, we took an open-book, multiple-choice test. We don’t like to brag, but we did all pass with flying colors and are now official CTAs. Of course we are all very enthusiastic supporters of the GLCVB and its CTA training program, and we believe that everyone should become an ambassador for Lansing and the tri-counties.
In fact, if you are reading this article, you should head over to GLCVB website, and sign yourself or your staff up. And if you are curious about Lansing, stop down to the Arts Council on Turner St. in Old Town, and we will answer all your questions!