Mr Bayo Adedeji, Chief Executive Officer, Wakanow, a tourism firm, has urged the Lagos State Government to develop its aquatic endowments to boost tourism activities in the state.
Adedeji made the call on Friday during a familiarisation tour orgainsed by the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to familiarise tourism operators with the tourism potential in the five divisions of the state.
He said the state should explore its over 180km water bodies maximally as it’s known as city of aquatic splendour.
“The needed infrastructure should be put in place as it is in other African countries. Kenya, Ghana and Gambia have developed their coastal areas,” he said.
According to him, these countries are generating huge revenue from tourists’ visit to their beaches, and that Nigeria can do same.
He said there should be huge investment in acquiring cruise boats for tourists’ delight as the tourists would be made to pay, thereby boosting the state’s Internally Generated Revenue.
“From my findings, I realised we have about 4,000 tourists visit Eleguishi beach daily, 7,000 tourists in Landmark beach and 4,000 tourists in Oniru beach on a daily basis.
“You can imagine the kind of revenue that could be generated when we have more beaches, when our coastal areas are made neat and when the needed infrastructure are in place.
“Lagos State has the opportunity to do what no state in the country has done, invest in infrastructures around our coastal areas, make our water clean and create more fun activities around the coastal areas.
“Invest in sensitising Lagos residents on the dangers in throwing plastics and dirts generally in the water, it makes it unattractive and dirty, ” he said.
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Adedeji noted that since the economy of Epe is based on fish, there were lots of avenues to generate revenue from this through actual sales of the fish, exporting it, viewing the different fish species by tourists and more.
Expert urges Lagos govt to develop aquatic endowment
