By Priscailla Osaje
The 2023 annual Gastronomy festival, organised by the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), ended on Saturday night with a gala investiture.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the grand finale of the two-day event was held at the Abuja International Conference Centre (AICC), with stakeholders, businesses and enthusiasts in the industry in attendance.
The third edition of the festival, with the theme: “Culinary Arts – The Gateway to Growing Tourism Destination’, featured the presentation of awards of recognition on prestigious NIHOTOUR fellows.
The peak of the ceremony was the presentation of prizes to winners of cooking competition, most dedicated staff, best staff of the year, best NIHOTOUR campus, as well as fellowship investitures to some stakeholders, who had contributed to the growth and development of the industry.
NAN reports that Red Dish Chronicles emerged the winner of the cooking competition and was offered a deep freezer and a trip to Tunisia.
Mastermind catering and culinary institute emerged second and received a giant deep freezer while Chef Academy took the third position, getting 450 capacity deep freezer.
Some of the competitive trophies during the night were – most dedicated staff, won by Mr Halidu Abu; best staff of the year, won by Gemma Simon; and the over-all best campus, won by Uche-Ibeabuchi Chinyere (Head, Lagos campus).
The fellowship investiture were received by Dr Ngozi Onwudiwe, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, in recognition of her visionary approach, dynamism, leadership competence and contribution to public service.
Others were; Mr Li Xuda, Mr Ikecgi Ukoh, Mr Oluwadunsin Oluwasuji, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, Sir Gabe Onah, Mr Tarek Khoury, Mrs Millie Slade, for their immense contributions to the growth and development of the hospitality and tourism sector.
Alhaji Nura Kangiwa, Director-General of NIHOTOUR, said that gastronomy tourism could significantly make Nigeria a leading domestic and inbound Africa destination for cultural tourism.
According to him, Africa tourist destination will depend on both developing the human capital in the industry, and massive promotion of Nigeria with some of the best cultural tourism offers on the content.
“Cultural tourism relates to a destination’s unique culture, traditional practices, festivals, foods history, and all facets of the indigenous peoples’ way of lives, whose attractiveness are worth experiencing by visitors and tourists.
“Gastronomy tourism ranks high for Nigeria because of our ethnic diversity, as we are conservatively estimated to be over 300 ethic groups spread across the six major geopolitical zones,” he said. (NAN)