Cross River governor, Ayade named Tourism Man of the Year

Governor of Cross Riv­er State, Professor Ben Ayade, has bagged the Tourism Man of the Year award for Nigeria and West Africa.
Before being named the re­cipient of the current edition, Ayade was locked in a tight race with others including the Minister of Tourism for Ghana, the Minister of Tour­ism for The Gambia as well as Obinna Ekezie, the managing director of travel and tourism outfit, Wakanow.
Based on the results re­leased on Tuesday by the Bal­afon Award committee made up of travel professionals and journalists from Nigeria and Ghana, the Cross River gover­nor, who made some inspiring changes to the Calabar carni­val following his assumption of office last year, beat the oth­er three to the gong.
The short-listed nominees were exposed to public votes on Atqnews website and Fa­cebook pages. The online vot­ing was done using the Survey monkey software in conjunc­tion with the Atqnews Face­book page boasting 23,000 followers and the weekly newsletter reaching a glob­al audience of over 100,000 people.
After a robust debate while analysing the results, the award committee approved the results and winners will be presented with award certifi­cates at an Accra Weizo event in Ghana on July 15, 2016.
From the analysis, it was made clear that most votes came from Nigeria and Gha­na with few other voters from other parts of Africa.
Experts believe Ayade’s tourism achievements in only 12 months in office, which include the opening of the first monorail in Sub-Saha­ra Africa, hosting the biggest ever street carnival in Africa last year and setting up Cal­lywood, as standing him in good stead. - The Authority.