By Mubiru Ivan
Amos Wekesa is a tourism enthusiast and ‘Brand Uganda’ promoter. Currently in United States of America, Wekesa is using the annual United Stated Tour Operators Association (USTOA) meeting to sell and promote Uganda.
A few days ago, he took to social media to ‘tell’ Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) how best to market the Pearl of Africa. He probably foresaw that Uganda would return empty from the recently concluded World Travel Awards, where the country and tourism/hospitality industry failed to win a single accolade.
The WTA were established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.
Today, the World Travel Awards brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of industry excellence.
Each year WTA covers the globe with its Grand Tour – a series of regional gala ceremonies to recognise excellence within each continent, culminating in a Grand Final at the end of the year.
This year’s Grand Final took place in Lisbon, Portugal with only a few African countries making it to the top.
The world’s Leading Safari Lodge award went to the Four Season’s Safari Lodge, Serengeti / Tanzania while Shambala from South Africa was named as the World’s Leading Private Game Reserve.
Maradiva Villas, Resort and Spa from Mauritius was named as the World’s Leading Luxury Villa Beach Resort.
Mauritius was named as the Most Romantic Destination in the world for 2018 while Kenya was named as the world’s best safari destination for 2018.
Zambia’s ‘Zambezi Queen‘ took top honours as the World’s Leading Boutique Cruise while the Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa claimed the honour as the World’s Leading Boutique Hotel.
The world’s leading safari resort award went to South Africa’s Legend Golf and Safari Resort.
Cape Town, aka The Mother City, did Africa proud when it claimed the top honours as leading festival and event destination, also of course being Africa’s number one Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) destination for the past several years.
Silvan Safari from South Africa was named as the World’s Leading Luxury Lodge while Villa iZulu took the award for Leading Luxury Private Villa.
Leading villa collection went to Mantis, an African hospitality company.
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