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The Nigeria Travel Week is a multi – day travel and tourism event platform that aims to drive the Nigerian tourism industry by bringing together buyers, consumers, travel technologies, travel and tourism service providers and the media to network, review and discuss the development of tourism in Nigeria. The event, billed to hold between November 20 and 25, includes pre and post-event hosted delegates familiarization tours.

As preparations for the debuting Nigeria Travel Week gathers momentum, organisers of the travel and tourism trade event have announced nominees for The Balearica Awards, which forms part of activities slated for the four days gathering that is geared at promoting Nigeria tourism both to the domestic and foreign markets as well as tourists.

THE NIGERIA TOURSIM AWARDS (THE BALEARICA AWARDS)

The Balearica is named and designed after the Black Crowned Crane. The Black Crowned Crane is the national bird of Nigeria. Countries have national animals and plants as symbols for tourism promotion. The amazing statuette is 230mm by 217mm made of 24ct gold plated aluminium with black acrylic.

The Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Travel Week (NTW), Efetobo Awhana, who is also the CEO of Avantgarde Tours, said that the award, which is to reward and recognize excellence and those who have made immense contributions to Nigeria tourism, would transform the face of tourism, insisting that it is a unique one. He explained that the choice of Balearica, which is the name of Nigeria’s national bird on the coat of arm, is symbolic in that it is used for the promotion of tourism. Hence they have adopted it as the brand name and symbol for the award, an indication of the overall mandate and focus of NTW.

According to him, the awards categories are divided into 24 sections with 20 of the categories to be voted for by the public and the votes vetted by a private auditing firm while four of the categories are not to be voted for by the public but selected by the organisers based on the contributions made by the people so honoured.

Some of the nominated names and organisations include:

Best Tourism Governor nominees are:

  • Lagos
  • Rivers
  • Bauchi
  • Ondo
  • Akwa Ibom

Travel personality of the year:

Bankole bernard, president, NANTA

Royal support for tourism:

Ooni if Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusin Ojaja II;

And lift achievement awards:

Former president olusegun obasanjo.

Those gunning for Best Tourism Attraction of the year are:

  • Idanre Hills
  • Nike Art Gallery
  • Calabar Carnival
  • Kajuru Castle Kaduna
  • Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library 
  • Kano Durbar 

Best Airline (Domestic) are:

  • Peace Air
  • Medview 
  • Dana 

Best Tour Operators are:

  • Jemi – Alade Tours
  • TravelNextDoor
  • Motley Travels
  • SJ Tours
  • Ibom Tourism
  • Tour2Nigeria 
  • Remlords Tours

Best resort are:

  • Whispering palm
  • La campagne tropicana beach resort
  • Abraka turf and country club
  • Le meridien uyo
  • Green legacy resort

Speaking on other aspects of the event, the Chief Operating Officer of NTW, Toni Ukachukwu, who is also the Managing Director of Afro Tourism, said that they have secured strategic partners for the event. These include the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) and SKAL International Lagos. Ukachukwu also revealed that preparations have reached advanced stage with 52 hosted buyers from 23 countries across the world attending the event. He said the essence of having hosted buyers, which cut across various stakeholders in the industry – tour operators, travel agents and the media, is to expose them to Nigeria destination and offer them the opportunity to experience Nigeria and in return market the country through their various platforms.

To this end, he revealed that post – event tours to various parts of Lagos would be organised for the hosted buyers alongside their Nigeria counterparts. ‘‘Other events taking place during the Nigeria Travel Week include The Tourism Cup holding at Ikoyi Club Golf course, which is a golf tournament to harness the power of golf in promoting tourism,’’ disclosed Ukachukwu.

Other events taking place during the Nigeria Travel Week include

  • The Tourism Cup holding at Ikoyi Club Golf Course which is a golf tournament to harness the power of golf in promoting tourism;
  • The Travel Roundtable holding at The Wheatbaker Hotel which brings stakeholders to discuss key issues for tourism development;
  • Village Square holding at Freedom Park celebrates Nigerian culture through drama dance and food; and
  • Travel Hangout where Nigerians can network and talk about tourism in the relaxed natural environment of the Lekki Conservation Centre.

The four days event would climax with The Balearica Awards, where the full names of the awardees would be revealed and celebrated for their different achievements. The occasion he said would attract the attention of both government and public operators.

Click here for the link to vote

To register for the Nigeria Travel Week, click here