Natchez — Selah Havard, director of sales for the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau has completed the first portion of a three-year professional development program that will lead to certification as a tourism marketing professional.

Havard was one of 285 tourism professionals enrolled at the Southeast Tourism Society Marketing College earlier this month. The week-long program turns the facilities of North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega, Ga., into a laboratory to teach tourism marketing each summer.

Senior executives in the travel and tourism industr