On Easter Monday, April 6, the @TravelNextDoor folks will visit the Epe community of Lagos State.
Tagged ‘Let’s Go A Fishing’, it is one in the series of the environmental artistic leisure excursion conceived by the award-winning travel journalist and author, Pelu Awofeso.
This edition of the initiative, Awofeso said, will take local tourists to the Lekki Conservation Centre, Awolowo Prison Museum, Lekki; Regisaine Salt Factory, Lekki and the Oluwo Fish Market, Epe.
The other places include: Colonial Architecture, Epe; Slavery Canons, Epe; the Epe Resort and a host of others.
The bus will ferry those who have paid the required fee for the trip from Oba Akran by Mr Biggs, Ikeja, Lagos, at 7am.
The last time @TravelNextDoor made the highly educative excursion trip was to mark last year’s edition of World Tourism Day on September 27 and Nigeria’s 54th Independence (October 1). The former trip went to the Lekki-Ajah axis (Lagos), while the latter went to Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The Lekki trip then made stops at: Freedom Park, Nike Art Gallery, Lekki Conservation Centre, and a host of others. In Abeokuta, the tourists visited the Alake’s Palace, the first church in Nigeria (St. Peters Anglican Cathedral, built in 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. Its 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 realised that Nigerians, young and old, will gladly sign up for tours within Nigeria, if and when they know about it,” said Awofeso. “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.”
Awofeso said the initiative 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.
