Come November 22, 2019, individuals and businesses who have been outstanding in the past year will be recognized for their exploits at the Nigeria Tourism Awards (aka The Balearica Awards).
This award event is part of various activities lined up for the 3rd edition of the Nigeria Travel Week.
Categories up for grabs include Best Tour Operator, Best Airline, Best Travel Agency, Best Hotel and Best Tourist Attraction, among many others.
According to Efetobo Awhana, CEO of Avant Garde Tours and The Nigeria Travel Week “The Balearica Awards (Nigeria Tourism Awards) is designed to register public opinion on the performance of leisure and business tourism service providers and attractions while celebrating and highlighting the achievements of outstanding travel professionals, organizations and trendsetters in the Nigerian travel industry” he said.
The Travel Week which has become a key part of the country’s tourism calendar and endorsed by the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and the Lagos State government started on Sunday (17 November) with a fun day out tagged “Upbeat Experience”, it ended with a travel hangout at La Campagne Tropicana resort in Epe, Lagos.
Other highlights of the week include a travel roundtable where industry stakeholders discuss the state of tourism in Nigeria and proffer workable solutions to current challenges impeding the growth of the sector.
Speaking on the purpose of the NTW, the organizer posited that the need to create awareness on the abundance of opportunities and potentials in domestic and inbound tourism in Nigeria.
“The purpose of NTW is to create awareness about the opportunities and potential in domestic and inbound tourism in Nigeria… seeks to strengthen intra-African tourism via increased networking and partnerships between the different stakeholders in the tourism industry all across Africa.”
It is also “designed to fight the false narratives about tourism in Nigeria and Africa” because the initiators “believe that there is little progress that can be made to African tourism if Nigerian tourism is left behind”.
And they have a good reason for this position. “When you consider that Nigeria alone accounts for almost 20 percent of the population of the continent which is about 1.2 billion people, selling Nigeria to Nigerians thus makes it easier for Nigerians to appreciate other African offerings which are similar in nature,” the organisers said.