Accra Weizo 2019: Nomination opens for Balafon Awards

Ahead of this year’s Accra Weizo, the West African Travel market, organisers have announced nominations for this year’s Balafon Awards put together by ATQNews.

In 2017, the organisation hosted the awards for Top 100 Tourism personalities in West Africa, while for 2018, it added the Top 100 Hotels in West Africa.

Beside its annual Balafon Award, this year, the publication seeks to position in positive light the leading conference centres in West Africa. The winners of the categories will be selected via nominations to atqnewsawards@gmail.com before June 4, which will be ratified by a board made of specialist and media.

The award categories include Travel Personality of the Year in West Africa, Tourism Man of the Year in West Africa, Aviation Man of the Year in West Africa, Hotel Personality of the Year in West Africa, Aviation Minister of the Year West Africa, Tourism minister of the year in West Africa, Best Airline in West Africa, Best Hotel in West Africa and Best Airport in West Africa (for government agencies).

Others are Best Ground Handling Company in West Africa, Best Tourism Marketing Award West Africa, Top three tourism Events of the Year West Africa and Top ten Conference Centres in West Africa.

Last year, at the World Travel Market in London, Ghana Tourism Authority signed a 5-year MoU with the Organisers of Accra Weizo to Jointly Organise the expo with the owners Akwaaba Travel Market. Accra Weizo has been held in Ghana for four years now and the 2019 edition has been fixed for June 28 and 29.

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 positioning of Accra for MICE and Ghana for Tourism. Weizo has successfully brought travel professionals from different countries to Ghana for Tourism Business. It is themed for Seamless travel in West Africa.

The Ag CEO of Ghana Tourism Authority Mr. Akwasi Agyeman signed on behalf of Ghana and Mr. Ikechi Uko signed on behalf of Akwaaba Travel Market.

“This Agreement offers Ghana an opportunity to help build up an already thriving platform into a bigger event. We recognise the efforts and contributions of the organizers but we want the event bigger than it is and we believe it will bring more travel Professionals to Ghana,” Mr Agyeman said.

On his part Mr. Ikechi Uko thanked GTA for the partnership, adding, “It takes a man with a vision to see the power behind such platforms and move to take ownership of the project for the growth of Tourism in Ghana. I applaud the CEO and his team for this collaboration. We expect that with the Goodwill of the Government of Ghana Weizo will grow bigger.”

The agreement spells out roles by both sides and timelines to be managed by a Joint committee. Ghana has declared 2019 the year of return in commemoration of 400 years of slavery and has since hosted many events to mark the year.