Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade
Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade, has emerged winner of the
Tourism Man of the Year Award for Nigeria and West Africa. The contest
was a four man race between him, the Minister of Tourism for Ghana, The
Minister of Tourism for the Gambia and Obinna Ekezie the MD of Wakanow.
Ayade’s emergence is based on the results released on Tuesday by the
Balafon Award committee.
The Balafon Award committee made up of Travel Professionals and
Journalists from Nigeria and Ghana approved the results for the best
performers in Travel and Tourism West Africa. The committee had earlier
met and shortlisted Nominees for the Different award categories. The
shortlisted Nominees were then exposed to public votes on Atqnews
website and Facebook page.
The online voting was done using Survey monkey software. Atqnews
Facebook page has 23000 followers and the newsletter has a Weekly global
audience of over a hundred thousand people.
After a robust debate, the committee approved the results. Winners will be presented with Award Certificates at Accra Weizo event in Ghana on the July 15. However, from the analysis, it is obvious that most of the voters were from Nigeria and Ghana with few other voters from other parts of Africa.
Ayade in his first year in office not only sustained the tradition of Carnival Calabar, but also raised the bar for the event.
His tourism achievements in 12 months in Office include the opening
of the first monorail in sub Sahara Africa, hosting the biggest ever
street carnival in Africa last year, setting up Callywood the new movie
genre that is rated to be bigger and better than Nollywood. He is also
creating new cities in the state.
