The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, is set to organize the 2019 National Tourism Awards on Friday, November 6, 2020 at the National Theatre, Accra.

The awards ceremony which is the 15th in the series, is on the theme, ‘Growing tourism beyond the return, beyond COVID-19’.

The awards was instituted by the Ghana Tourism Authority in 1997 to reward excellence in the tourism sector, as well as raise standards and encourage healthy competition among tourism industry practitioners.

In a release issued to the Ghana News Agency, on Wednesday, in Accra, GTA said in 2019, Ghana’s tourism became a great success as the ‘Year of Return' sparked global movement by projecting Ghana on a higher pedestal, and a follow up of the successful ‘Year of Return', ‘Beyond the Return’ was launched recently.

It said a total of 43 awards would be presented to deserving tourism establishments and personalities during the awards ceremony, which included 32 competitive awards and 11 honorary awards.

The competitive awards included accommodation category (serviced apartment, hostel, budget hotel, guest house, 1- 5 Star hotel and consistent payment of tourism levy for accommodation.

Others include catering service category that is offshore/airline catering establishment, night club/pub, drinking bar, fast food establishment, traditional caterer (chop bar), restaurant of the year (grade 1 to 3) and consistent payment of tourism levy, catering.

The rest are travel service category including visitor attraction, site guide, tour guide, car rental service, travel agency, tour operator and airline of the year. Media category, which includes tourism broadcast programme, tourism writer, tourism oriented media for television, radio, print, and online.

The release noted that the honorary award was also based on special recognition for outstanding contribution to the tourism industry.