The Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has concluded plans to lead members of the state House of Assembly, executive council members and some tourism stakeholders on a 3-day familiarisation tour to various tourism sites within the state.
The Commissioner in charge of the Ministry, Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf, disclosed this in a statement in Lagos.
Akinbile-Yusuf explained that the tour woud hold from March 30 to April 1, with visits to tourism sites in each of the five divisions of the state.
She said the tour was in response to calls by different tourism stakeholders to further expose the tourism assets of the state to both local and international tourists.
“The tour will start from Ikeja division and end at Ikorodu division,” she said.
According to the itinerary of the tour, the familiarisation tour is planned to start from Ndubuisi Kanu Park at Alausa, through the African Shrine, to Ikeja and Oshodi Bus Terminals all within Ikeja division of the state.
“After which the team will connect the Lagos division of the state at the City Mall through John Randle Centre, Onikan to Freedom Park and Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos,” she said.
The Commissioner said that the team would depart for Badagry from the Falomo Jetty, exploring the waterways to spend a night in Badagry and afterwards visit the Slave Market, Point of No Return and some other tourism sites within Badagry on Thursday morning.
“From Badagry, the team will return to Eti-Osa with a visit to the world famous Nike Art Gallery and Lekki Conservation Centre before heading to Epe to spend another night.
“The Epe Fish Market and Sungbo Eredo will be part of the tourism attractions that would also be visited before going to the Palace of the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, which will be the final destination for the 3-day tour,” she said.
Akinbile-Yussuf noted that at each of the divisions, there would be engagement with tourism stakeholders on how to further harness the various tourism potentials domiciled in the various divisions.
She said this was important for economic growth and for the benefits of the residents as a whole.
“At Ikeja, the stakeholders’ engagement will be at the African Shrine where an entertainment guru, Edi Lawani will speak on ‘Reinforcing Lagos as the Entertainment Capital of Africa.
“Theo Lawson will speak on ‘The Positioning of Lagos as the Arts and Culture Centre of Africa’, at Freedom Park, Lagos.
“For the stakeholders in Epe, the Chief Executive Officer of Wakanow, Mr Bayo Adedeji will address participants on “Exploiting the Aquatic Blessings of Lagos for Tourism Growth’ at Lagos Theatre, in Epe.
“For Badagry division, a top-rated tour guide, Anago Osho will speak to stakeholders on ‘Reinventing Lagos as the Prime Destination for the African Diaspora’,” she said.
Akinbile-Yusuf noted that the tour would afford the ministry the opportunity to accelerate conversation with relevant individuals and institutions for partnership opportunities in implementing the tourism masterplan.
She said it would also help in creating an enabling environment for investors in line with the cardinal objectives and strategic developmental vision of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s “THEMES Agenda”.
She said: “It should be noted that this familiarisation tour across the five divisions of Lagos was part of the resolutions reached from the numerous stakeholders meetings held in the past 2 years by the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture.
“This also led to the launch of the Tourism Masterplan in Lagos, apart from being the first state to launch a tourism masterplan in the entire country; the state government had ensured the implementation of different aspects of the masterplan.
“This includes the Community-Based Tourism initiative, which is now operational in some pilot local government areas.”