Emeka Anokwuru
African Travel Quarterly has announced winners of the prestigious Balafon Awards to be recognised at the coming edition of the tourism and travel fair, Accra Weizo, in Ghana. The “Tourism Man of the Year in West Africa” award goes to Otunba Segun Runsewe, director-general, National Council for Arts and Culture, “Travel Personality of the Year in West Africa,” was won by Chief Allen Onyema of Air Peace, “Aviation Man of the Year in West Africa,” Captain Solomon Quianoo of Ghana, while “Hotel Personality of the Year in West Africa” went to Mr. Amaechi Ndili of Golden Tulip West Africa.
Balafon Awards of Excellence is an annual event hosted for pioneers and best players in the industry in the ECOWAS region. This year, the organisers will use Balafon to draw attention to the “best conference centres” in the sub-region and their rising profile.
The winners of the categories were selected through nominations to [email protected], which ended on June 3, 2019. Accra Weizo is organized by Akwaaba Travel Market in partnership with Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA). With the theme: “Seamless travel in West Africa,” the event is expected to bring travel and tourism professionals from across the region to the table. Accra Weizo has been organised in Ghana for four years now and the 2019 edition holds between June 28 and 29.
In 2017, it hosted the awards for “Top 100 Tourism Personalities in West Africa” and at the 2018 edition it hosted the “Top 100 Hotels in West Africa.” Besides the awards in 2019, atqnews.com seeks to position in positive light the leading conference centres in West Africa as being ideal for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. It is the online platform for ATQ and Travellers magazine, the first travel magazine in West Africa which concentrates on travel and tourism issues. It started publishing offline about 30 years ago. ATQnews.com features reports that cover a wide range of topics within the travel and tourism sectors which are intended for an ever-increasing and passionate audience of readers and travellers from all over the world.
Last year, at the World Travel Market in London, Ghana Tourism Authority signed a five-year MOU with the organisers of Accra Weizo. The MOU is to jointly organise the successful expo with the owners of Akwaaba Travel Market. At present, Ghana is the leading meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) destination in West Africa and ranks number one on ICCA ratings. Hosting Accra Weizo reinforces the position of Accra for MICE and Ghana for tourism business.
Reports by Ghana News Agency, confirmed that the GTA together with its stakeholders last week launched the 2019 edition of the “Women in Tourism” summit and the Accra Weizo fair, in Accra. The summit with theme: “Empowering women in Ghana’s Tourism Industry” holds on June 27, while the fair with the theme “Seamless Travel in West Africa” comes up on June 28 and 29.
Mr. Isaac Adomako-Mensah, deputy executive director, finance and administration, GTA, said both the summit and fair have become part of the major events to promote tourism in the country since their inception. He said the fair was geared towards getting West Africans to cooperate with each other, and is aimed at creating a seamless travel environment in the region by bringing together travel professionals to Accra. He said the GTA would host delegates coming from nations in the East, West and Southern Africa at a three-day familiarization tour from June 25 till 27.
“The delegates will take a tour of the Greater Accra, Western and Central regions. Places of visit would include Nzulezu, Ankasa Conservation Area, Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Secondi European Town, and the Cape Coast Castle,” he said.
the GTA’s domestic tourism campaign of Eat, Feel, See, and Wear Ghana.
He expressed confidence in the leaderships of both teams, expressing the hope that the events in the long run would accelerate the development of tourism in Ghana and West Africa.
Mr. Collins Udolu of Accra Weizo, said the fair had come this far after its inception five years ago, solely by the work of the dedicated team with support of stakeholders looking to enhance the business and tourism environment across Africa.
He said the event has grown to become an event found in every arena of tour operations in West Africa, and has helped change the narrative of the sub-region by collaborating and easing business in tourism and aviation “This year the event would have speakers from Ghana, Nigeria, Dubai, and Uganda.” Mrs. Bella Ahu, president, Ghana Tourism Federation, congratulated the organisers of both events, saying empowering women in tourism was long overdue, and the summit had come at an appropriate time when women empowerment was on the increase in the industry.
“Five years in the life of every organisation needs to be celebrated, and we believe that participants would take the opportunity to see, eat, feel and wear Ghana.”
Ghana has declared 2019 the year of return in commemoration of 400years of slavery. It has since hosted many events to mark the year. Accra weizo will be one of the international events listed for 2019.
The awards come in different categories, from travel and tourism personality of the year to airports, airlines, hotels, aviation, marketing agencies, events, ground handling and other sectors of the industry.