SALALAH: The Arab Centre for Tourism Media (ACTM) will organise the presentation ceremony of the 10th Arab Tourism Media Awards on August 12.
The event will be held under the auspices of Abdulaziz bin Mohammed al Rowas, Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan for Cultural Affairs in coincidence with Salalah Tourism Festival.
Over 55 journalists and media professionals specialised in the field of tourism from all over the Arab world will take part in the event.
On the sidelines of the ceremony, an Arab Media Conference will be held during the morning session, which will include panel discussions and working papers with the participation of a group of Omani and Arab media professionals, in the presence of a number of personalities and experts interested in the Arab tourism media.
Dr Abdulaziz bin Othman al Twaijri, Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), will be the guest of honour of the conference, in the presence of Dr Taleb al Rifai, former secretary general of the UN World Tourism Organization (WTO), Princess Dana Firas, President of the Petra National Fund and Unesco Goodwill Ambassador for Cultural Heritage.
The Sultanate has won a number of Oscars of the Arab media tourism, including Shaikh Salem bin Oufit al Shanfari, Head of Dhofar Municipality, the winner of the best government figure in support of Arab Tourism for 2017, Shaikh Salem bin Ahmed al Ghazali who won the award of the best investor supporting the Arab Tourism for 2017, and the Ministry of Tourism, which won the best tourism authority to achieve growth in the tourism sector for 2017.
The Public Authority for Radio and Television (PART) won the best Arab media supporting the local and Arab tourism for 2017.
Oman newspaper won the award of the best Arabic newspaper in the tourism coverage for 2017 and SalamAir won the best airline supporting the Arab tourism for 2017.
The city of Muscat was named Best Tourist City of 2018.
On the sidelines of the ‘Berlin Stock Exchange 2018,’ Zurab Pololikashvili, the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) announced that Princess Dana Firas of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has won the title of the Arab Heritage Person. Talib al Rifai, former Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization won the Arab tourism figure.
Dr Sultan al Yahyaee, President of the Arab Centre of Tourism Media, said that more than 1.5 million voters took part in the selection of the winners through electronic voting while 187 competitors from 14 Arab countries participated in the competition.
The results of the winners in the Arab countries are as follows: the award of the best press writer went to Ahmed al Zahrani from Saudi Arabia in equal share with Amin Balhia from Algeria.
The women best writer award went to Jocelyn Elia of the Lebanese Middle East newspaper, in partnership with Mayada Seif from Al Alam Al Youm newspaper from Egypt.
The best director for Arab tourism programmes award went to Norhan a Bili from Egypt.
The Bahrain News Agency received the award of the best Arab news agency while the photographer Mohammad al Yafei from Qatar received the best picture shot.
Busat Al Reeh show from Sudan won the award of best radio show. The best Arab tourism website won by the Arab Tourist. The best TV show award went to ‘Ala Khutta Al Arab’ from Saudi Arabia.
In addition, the Algerian tourism webpage by Muhey Askander won the best tourism Facebook webpage. The account of Ibrahim Sarhan from Saudi Arabia won the best Twitter account.
— ONA
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