Abuja Jabamah takes MICE to next level, honours industry promoters,

The 2018 edition of Abuja Jabamah has again taken a leap in its rededication to the promotion of hotel, MICE and culinary delight in the northern part of Nigeria through B2B, session and networking among stakeholders in tourism and allied industry.

The second edition of the Abuja Jabamah came handy with innovations and features that did not only open new avenue of opportunities for stakeholders but also gave them relevance as the future economic pride of Nigeria as an all purpose industry with many opportunities.

Most importantly this year’s edition recognised stakeholders and professionals cut across diverse allied tourism sector who have dedicated their effort to the promotion, development and reinventing contents for the building of Nigeria tourism industry.

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As part of this, the organizers honoured 100 top tourism personalities in Nigeria, Inducted  100 tourism Club members and also bestowed special awards of distinction in Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions and Events (MICE) to deserving personalities which includes state governments, private and corporate individuals.

Three elders of the industry, 18 government and allied individuals, 10 Africa Travel 100 Women, 17 associations, 11 hospitality, 8 Travel Agents/ OTA/ Tour Operators, 16 Africa Travel 100 Tour Operators and 14 Africa Travel 100 Tour Operators of which Tribuneman, Wale Olapade,

Chief Correspondent, Travelpulse&MICE/Business desk was a proud winner of the First West Africa MICE Journalist of the Year award for 2018, also emerged one of the 100 Top Tourism Personalities in Nigeria and a life member of the Tourism 100 Club.

According to the organiser, Mr Uko, the MICE award which is a special one was given to the few MICE awardees as frontlines in the sector and to the Tribune Journalist. Mr Olapade for solely and been the first and only journalist to take up the new part of boosting the promotion and campaign through his column on the Nigerian Tribune publications.

The event also showcase the culinary delight of the core North with available cuisines displayed for guests to taste from, including different local cocktail drinks to go with it.

South African Tourism was also on ground to added colours to the hotel and MICE expo through varieties of offers, promotional materials, presentation on Nelson Mandela and presentation of his book to the DG NCAC, Otunba Segun Runsewe and the Ethiopian High Commissioner  to Nigeria, Ambassador Solomon Abebe Tesema.

According to the organiser of Abuja Jabamah, Mr IkechiUko, “the business tourism platform is a one stop shop deliberately to create a signature activities hub for the up north tourism, travel and meetings market to thrive.

“The North has its flagship products and market trends, and to effectively make it more actively relevant, Abuja Jabamah, a Fulani parlance for meetings was coined as a brand to not only project but also to position the market and destination to reckon with in Nigeria tourism.

“The energy was unbelievable, the attendance was unprecedented and guests refused to go two hours after the event have closed. We have give a massive to 100 years post humous birthday anniversary of Nelson Mandela of South Africa to end the event.

He thank the Director-General, National Council of Arts and Culture (NCAC, Otunba Segun Runsewe for his strong support , dedication and unalloyed  effort at seeing Nigeria rich cultural potentialities from a new angle with his apt attention to new narrative about MICE and using culture to unite, develop capacity and promoting the country growth agenda.

Also in his remarks at the Abuja Jabamah, the Director-General, NCAC, Runsewe called on all and sundry to rededicate themselves to the new dream of making Nigeria great through genuine and practical use of culture to boost economic wealth.

He said culture is the new dream of Nigeria and he is using it to foster peace, unity, create entrepreneurial skills to keep people gainfully employed and be employers’ of labour, as a value chain to boost the nation’s economy.

He commended the Akwaaba team for creating Abuja Jabamah as a mean of closing the gab market segmentation in the country as well as creating a platform to open a hub for the stakeholders up north of Nigeria.

“ We (NACA) are partnering with the organisers of of Akwaaba and Abuja Jabamah to joint draw more comparative ways of taken the promotion of Nigeria rich cultural and allied industry to the benefit of the people and the country whilst we attract domestic and international tourists, visitors and investors to Nigeria.”

Runsewe thanked  the state delegates from Plateau State for their new dream of recently reactivation policy thrusts to effectively position the state in the scheme of thing as far as tourism is concern.

“ Plateau State is safe and the recent visit is an attestation of governor Simon Lalong genuine interest and focus to regain the tourism and hospitality confidence as home of peace and hospitality.