Accra, June 11, GNA - Eight organizations on Tuesday offered sponsorship in cash and kind to support this year's National Tourism Awards to be held on August 2.

The organizations are Golden Tulip Hotel which offered GH¢ 1,000, Latex Foam Company, GH¢ 800; Cleaning Solutions, offered cleaning products worth GH¢4,000 and an amount of GH¢1,000; Hinlone Restaurant, GH¢ 500 and Antrak Air which offered tickets to various destinations within the country to the tune of GH¢ 5,000 Other sponsorship packages are from Manet Paradise Hotel, who would host the Coastal Awards ceremony; Fiesta Royale, which gave vouchers for award winners to spend time in their hotel and the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, which is offering scholarships to six of the award winners to train in various aspects of hospitality. Mr. Edwin Owusu-Mensah, Deputy Executive Director in-charge of Operations at the Ghana Tourist Board appealed for more organizations to sponsor the National Tourism Awards ceremony held bi-annually to reward excellence in the hospitality industry.

"As at now we do not have a title sponsor and we are calling on corporate organizations to help us sensitize the public on the contributions of tourism to social and economic growth with this award ceremony," he said. Mr. Owusu-Mensah further explained that the Tourism Awards ceremony was also used to set benchmarks for tourism practice in the country and there was the need for individuals and corporate organizations to be part of the effort to promote safe and responsible tourism.

There would be zonal awards to precede the national awards ceremony in August. The zonal awards have been categorized into the Savanna Zone which comprises the three northern regions to be held on June 14, the Forest Zone, comprising Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Eastern regions to be held on June 21 and the Coastal Zone made up Western, Central, Volta and Greater Accra regions to be held on June 28.