It was a fun-filled weekend for more than 150 persons who embarked on a tour of some iconic tourism sites in Lagos under the Lagos Summer with Mr. Nonso tour package. The tour which took places, yesterday, August 22, kicked off from the Lagos mainland and ended up at the Elegushi beach with a bonfire night and party.
The group’s first point of call was the popular Nike Arts Gallery in Lekki where the group immersed themselves in both history and contemporary Nigeria arts and craft.
The positive vibe from the tour of the gallery took the group to the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Arts at Pan Atlantic University, near Epe. At the university, the Lagos Summer group had a picnic surrounded by the beautiful green ambience of the museum, before going on a guided tour of the museum.
There was also a special adire tie and dye teaching class for the tour group at the museum. The trip ended at the Elegushi beach for the bonfire night party.
The organizer of the tour, Mr. Chinonso Emmanuel Uche (Mr. Nonso), said the tour package was part of his initiative to encourage Nigerians to patronize tourism back home. “It’s just for us to sell Nigeria before we start inviting outsiders. We need to consume what we have, and push it out there. So it’s part of the program. I do it every summer, either before the summer or after the summer, to encourage people to patronize tourism in Nigeria,” he said.
He said the Summer Tour has been on in the last four years and that he has, in the past, organized tour of Abuja, Enugu, and Imo State, and this year’s edition was the fourth tour of Lagos.
He said the idea was to bring together people from different areas of life to come, tour and appreciate the tourism assets of the country and also have fun. He said: “The target audience is everybody across board, across all nations, and Nigerians. Let Nigerians also understand what we have first because we have everything and people don’t even know where to go to in Nigeria. So, it is to encourage people in Nigeria to explore of tourist attractions, when they go, take pictures, post online, it has also have an impact. When you see them on their social media, Facebook, Instagram, and even their professional pages, it will encourage foreigners to start patronizing our place. So that’s the idea.”
Mr. Nonso said the response and participation by both Nigerians and expatriates has been positive and that it has encouraged him to continue: “We would have had more than this number, but because of the places we chose for this year, we are working with just 150 people. We had more, more than 150 people. We had to prune it down so that we can manage the people. But next year, we’ll increase the capacity.”
On what he believes is the top draw for Lagos, Mr. Nonso said: “Lagos as a whole and as a name, a brand name is already sold to the world. If you mention Nigeria, it’s just like Naija, it’s sold to the world. People know Nigeria, even when they have not been to Nigeria. And when you mention Africa, the next thing you’re going to hear is Nigeria. And when you mention Nigeria, the first thing people outside the world are going to hear is Lagos, even within us in Nigeria here. A lot of people dream to visit Lagos. Not just because of the beach around, but because of the urban city. It’s our commercial city, and it has a lot of historical places inherited from our colonial masters: the slave trade artifacts, the beach, the Yoruba cultures, and the infusion of the Western culture, you can remember the Brazilian things. So, there are a lot of things to experience in Lagos. Apart from safari, every other thing you’re looking for in tourism is in Lagos.”
He explained that the sites the group visited were carefully curated for a rich experience of Lagos: “We are at Nike Art Gallery. Most people know Nike Art Gallery, and majority here have not visited. Then we are also introducing Shyllon Museum which is in Pan-Atlantic University. So, because of where it’s located, most people don’t go there. In fact, they have more visitors outside from Nigeria than Nigerians going there. So, that’s why we chose that place.”
Mr. Nonso said Nigeria has everything to be a top destination that is why efforts are being made to to expose these hidden but interesting sites: “I hate to compare Nigeria or what we do with other destinations. You will see when you go to the coastal part, the Mediterranean part of the world and the Western part during summer, you will see a mass number of people gathered in a particular place for two, three days. So, my dream is that during summer or even off-summer, December period, whenever we have holidays, families can gather by the beach and stay three, four days, and we will feel secured, and would have fun, network, and meet people.”
Activities during the tour include a quiz segment in which the Regional Manager of Rwandair for West and Central Africa Ginette Kadigiri quizzed members of the tour group on their knowledge of Rwandair activities. She also gave out prizes to winners of the quiz.
