Cross River Gov Ayade, Ghana, Gambia ministers nominated for Balafon Tourism Award

ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade; the Minister of Tourism, Ghana, Hon. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare and the tourism minister of Gambia, Benjamin Roberts, are the leading candidates nominated by the Balafon Award committee for the West African Tourism Man of the year award.

The maiden edition of the award was won last year by the Minister of Tourism of Ghana at Accra Weizo. Since the last edition the minister has increased her tempo of marketing Ghana in all major source markets culminating in the familiarisation visit by the Chinese tour operators to Ghana recently. Govenor Ben Ayade the “Digital”Governor of Cross River State delivered on his promise to internationalise the world famous Carnival Calabar. He had inherited a great event that the Carnival has become and he extended the spice by adding A bikers day and an international section that brought over 200 foreign revellers  to the Carnival. Carnival Calabar can now properly position itself as the major event in Africa.
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The Gambia is still exciting with its tourism products as the country continues its marketing campaigns across the world and the minister who was formerly of the tourism board is keeping a steady hand on the Job.

The award for the best airlines in West Africa is a straight fight between Arik,  ASKY and Ghanaian carrier AWA. The CEO of ASKY,  Henok Tefferra and the CEO of Nigeria’s domestic carrier Air Peace, Allen Onyema are squared off for West African Aviation personality of the year. The public voting started last week on http://www.atqnews.com/vote.html and will end on July 4 and the committee will announce the results by July 5.

Tourism and travel leaders from all over West Africa will be meeting in Accra, Ghana on July 15 to discuss the challenges facing travels in West Africa. Balafon Awards will be held at the closing ceremony of the event.