World Travel Awards has reached an agreement with Realtours and the Associação Empresarial de São Tomé e Príncipe to host the World Travel Awards Africa Gala Ceremony 2017.

The event will be held in the city of São Tomé, with major sponsors including CST, Mota Engil, HBD, BISTP and Ghana Link Networks Services already confirmed.

This is in addition to official institutional and financial support from the government of São Tomé & Príncipe.

World Travel Awards President Graham Cooke said: “With our Grand Tour 2016 underway we are already turning our attention to 2017 and lining up a series of exciting destination hosts.

“São Tomé & Príncipe is the first of these to be confirmed - an exciting destination seeing exponential growth on the international hospitality scene.

“It will be a pleasure to welcome our nominees to this growing destination next year.”

São Tomé & Príncipe has been chosen to host the African Gala Ceremony in 2017 in an event that will bring all relevant African players in the industry to the country. The event promises to be a stunning celebration of excellence and outstanding achievements in the hospitality industry.

A series of promotional events will be launched as of now to start building up for what will be one of the largest events ever held in São Tomé & Príncipe.

Each year WTA covers the globe with a series of regional Gala Ceremonies staged to recognise and celebrate individual and collective successes within each key geographical region.

Each WTA Gala Ceremony offers unrivalled networking opportunities to members of the travel and tourism industry, with the events welcoming government and industry leaders as well as international print and broadcast media.

WTA was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry.

Today, the World Travel Awards brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others aspire.