Africa Travel awards - Minister St Ange, Seychelles carnival among the finalists |27 September 2016

Alain St Ange is a contender for the best Minister for Tourism for Africa award while Seychelles and other places here also feature among the finalists.

The best Tourism Minister in Africa award goes to recognise the endeavours of a tourism minister from Africa who has played a significant role in not only driving the tourism agenda of his/her country, but also helping forge ties between African nations with a view to enhancing regional tourism.

Mr St Ange is up against Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare from Ghana, Walter Mzembi from Zimbabwe and Fatou mas Jobe Njie from Gambia for the award.

The Seychelles carnival is one of the three best events for the Africa cultural award. The other two are the Carnival Calabar of Nigeria and Kwita Izina of Rwanda.

Maia Resort & Spa Seychelles is among the finalists for the best resort in Africa award along with Hotel Palace Royal Garden of Tunisia and Kempinski Ole Mara of Kenya.

Seychelles is also vying for the African award for sustainable tourism. This award is to any group or destination that is involved in best practices in sustainable tourism as a way of encouraging others to emulate and improve. The other two finalists are Libassa Ecolodge of Liberia and Rwanda Tourism.

Altogether there are 22 categories and the others are: best Business Class in Africa (restricted only to African Airlines), best Economy Class in Africa (restricted to only African Airlines), Airline with the best inflight service in Africa (restricted to only African Airlines), Most passenger-friendly airport in Africa, African aviation personality, best Airline in Africa, best short haul Airline in Africa, best online Booking platform in Africa, Tourism Marketing Award (for marketing within Africa), best International Airline in Africa (for non-African airlines), best Business hotel in Africa, best resort in Africa, best African hotel chain (owned by an African registered company),  best hotel chain in Africa (this is open to all hotels operating in Africa), Hotel of the year (all hotels qualify), African tourism personality, best emerging destination, best tourism blog/blogger, and African restaurant of the year.

The nominees in each category have been chosen by a pan African committee of travel professionals from different countries in Africa and the winners will be chosen by the public.

The awards ceremony during which the best players on the travel and tourism landscape in Africa will be rewarded, will take place on October 30 at the Travellers Night Dinner at Akwaaba African Travel Market.

The Africa Travel Awards is promoted by the online Africa Travel News website www.atqnews.com.