To mark this year’s World Tourism Day (September 27) and Nigeria’s
54th independence (October 1), @TravelNextDoor has announced commemorative
excursions to the lekki-Ajah axis (Lagos) and Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The trip to Lekki will hold on Saturday
27 September and will include stops at: Freedom
Park, Nike Art Gallery, Lekki Conservation Centre, Lekki Craft market, Lagos
National Museum, Lekki Leisure Lake and a private Jetty. Interest
participants can email travelnextdoor@yahoo.com
or call 08070999670 for details.
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| Nike Art Gallery |
For the Abeokuta
leg, scheduled for October 1, the excursion will touch such local attractions
as: the Alake’s Palace, the first church in Nigeria (St
Peters Anglican Cathedral, built 1844), the Centenary Hall, Olumo Rock Tourist
Centre, Kemta (Tie-and-Die fabric) market, Aroko Green Museum and the
Anikulapo-Kuti Family House.
@TravelNextDoor, a social media driven initiative which
primary aim is to promote Nigeria’s tourism assets to Nigerians, has organised similar
educational and recreational excursions since 2010 with impressive turn out of
tourists. It’s most recent excursions were taken to Badagry, the serene and renowned
slavery on the western fringe of Lagos.
“With our regular excursions, we have since realized that
Nigerians, young and old, will gladly sign up for tours within Nigeria, if and
when they know about it,” says Pelu Awofeso, @TravelNextDoor founder and coordinator.
“Ours have been well received and it is the reason we are still at it. More
than anything else, we see this as a wake-up call to the many tour operators
out there to design tour packages to our local attractions, which are as
fascinating as whatever is obtainable elsewhere on the continent.”
According to the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism
Organisation), the theme for this year’s celebration of the World tourism day is
“Tourism and Community Development”,
which places premium on the fact that tourism is well served when countries make
efforts to develop community-based tourist attractions, and by so doing “empower
people and provide them with skills to achieve change in their local
communities”.
According to Awofeso, who is also a travel journalist, “It
is a clear call to action for all countries serious about developing their
tourism industries and particularly for Nigeria, which has so far not given community
development the attention it deserves.”
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