The winners of the 9th Edition of the Balafon awards and the 4th Edition to be held in Accra Ghana has been released by publishers of Atqnews.Com.

Balafon awards of Excellence is an annual Awards organised to recognize Pioneers and best players in the industry for the ECOWAS region.

The winners are selected via a select polls among Practitioners and ratified by a board made of Specialist in Media 1. Travel Personality of the Year in West Africa - Stella Fubara Director Africa Dubai Tourism 2. Tourism Man of the Year in West Africa - Mrs. Uloma Egbuna, MD, Tour Brokers international Nigeria 3. Aviation Man of the Year in West Africa – Capt. Ado Sanusi, MD Aero 4. Hotel Personality of the Year in West Africa – Malah Saleh – Gambia 5. Best Airline in West Africa: - Air Peace 6. Best Hotel in West Africa-Kempinski Gold Coast city Hotel Accra Ghana, 7. Best Airport in West Africa – Dakar International Airport Senegal 8. Best Ground Handling Company in West Africa –Aviance 9. Best Tourism Marketing Award West Africa – Ghana 10. Tourism Event of the Year West Africa – Carnival Calabar 11. Aviation Minister of the Year West Africa-Cecilia Dappah Minister of Aviation Ghana 12. Tourism minister of the year in West Africa- Hon. Catherine Afeku Minister of Tourism ,Culture and Creative Arts. This comes as Organisers of Weizo announces the launch of a West African Travel and Tourism platform for the growth of Seamless Travel in the Ecowas region. The new association for Private sector Players in the region will emerge at the event. At the launch of Accra Weizo 4 years ago the Vision was to turn the 15 countries and its 380million people into a Domestic Tourism Destination.

It has taken four years for the Organisers of Weizo to reach out to over 150 Travel and Tour Operators in West Africa from 6 countries enough to start a regional association that will drive Tourism in the region. WATTA will be an association for any player in the Tourism and Travel environment.

The interim Board of WATTA will be announced and Inaugurated at Accra Weizo on the 23rd of June 2018 at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel Accra. Accra Weizo is one of the events geared towards getting West Africans to cooperate amongst themselves. West Africa is home to 15 countries of over 380 million people but Tourism and Travel is not the strong Suite of the Economic interaction in the region.

The Honourable minister of Aviation for Ghana Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah will be Opening the 4th Accra Weizo event on the 22nd of June with a Paper titled 'Harnessing the Opportunities in Aviation value chain in West Africa.' The first day will be the seminar on Aviation and the Second day will be dedicated to ‘Travel, Tourism and the Internet’ session to grow Travel Business and destination. It will be taking place at ada Ekesi Hall at L a Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra Ghana.