Eugene Martinez, a McKinley High School senior, buses tables after school at the Sheraton Waikiki and dreams of the day when he can become a hotel manager in Hawaii.

The tables turned for Martinez on Wednesday when he lunched with some of the top leaders at Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Hawaii at the first ClimbHI and Hawai‘i Tourism Authority LEI (Lead, Expose, Inspire) workforce development event. The program brought 300 high school students into Waikiki, where they got a chance to check out the tourism product, participate in tourism training, find out about job opportunities, and meet Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Mayor Peter Carlisle and tourism leaders from the state’s visitor industry.

"When you are ready, check out our management training program," Keith Vieira, senior vice president and director of operations for Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Hawaii and French Polynesia, told Martinez as he shook his hand.

Vieira, who began his career with Starwood as a doorman at the Moana Surfrider, said it’s important for leaders in Hawaii’s visitor industry to inspire local kids to take advantage of tourism opportunities.

"When I was their age, I had no clue about the opportunities in the visitor industry," Vieira said. "I was from Hilo and at that time most of the hotels were run by older white guys."

If not for the local residents and Native Hawaiian people, Hawaii could be just any other sun-and-sand visitor destination, said Palakiko Yagodich, an instructor at Kapiolani Community College and a ClimbHI mentor.

Still, at times, the presence of the host culture has been noticeably absent, Yagodich said.

"I tell the students don’t just grumble," he said. "When you live here and it’s your home, you should have a say in what your Hawaii looks like. Hopefully, these students will be the leaders deciding on the next view of Waikiki."

The hospitality industry has spent millions bringing the Hawaiian language, art, music and traditions back to the visitor experience and now wants to bolster the people, said David Uchiyama, HTA’s vice president of brand management.

"We have local general managers and local people in executive positions, but we need to sustain that," Uchiyama said.

HTA aims to groom the younger generation to be the next caretakers of the host culture and the style of Hawaii’s hospitality, he said.

"It’s important to get our local kids involved because their upbringing and their cultural values are really the spirit of what we are trying to provide," Uchiyama said.

ClimbHI is a Hawaii nonprofit that encourages students to finish high school and go on to college, or to get a job with a clear career path. In addition to partnering with ClimbHI, HTA is working with the Hawaii Department of Education to create a visitor industry curriculum for high school, Uchiyama said.

"If we want to be sustainable, we need to get students thinking about tourism careers before they leave high school," he said.

While many of the students at the Human Services Academy at Kapolei High School fall into tourism careers, few understand the opportunities or plan to go into the field, said Kristen Okano, who teaches there.

"They think they want to be teachers or firefighters or policemen," Okano said. "They always say that they want to do the jobs that they see daily. They don’t have a good understanding of the hospitality industry."

About 40 businesses participated in Wednesday’s event, said Julie Morikawa, CEO of ClimbHI and Expedia’s director of market management.

"We love recruiting from Hawaii because it allows us to bring talent into our ranks that understands the aloha spirit," Moana Surfrider general manager Craig Anderson told the students. "It’s also a good career path for you. I got my start in this business as a dishwasher so I’m a living example."

Exposure is the key to creating dreams and inspiring Hawaii’s students to build better lives for themselves, said ClimbHI’s Morikawa, who started the nonprofit in October 2011. Some of the students who participated are from fourth-generation welfare families, she said.

"In the survey that they filled out, some of them said that they had never been to Waikiki and others said that they had no aspirations," she said. "I came from the same background as some of these kids, but hula exposed me to the tourism industry and that was my saving grace. In tourism, I found my passion and it has taken me all over the world."