The Lagos State Government has officially pledged to give a facelift to the popular Tarkwa Bay beach, an artificial sheltered beach located in Lagos and transform it into a world-class tourist site.
As part of a move to realize this mission, the officials of the State government with other stakeholders in the tourism sector convened at the Tarkwa Bay beachfront Victoria Island to mark this year’s World Tourism Day.
The event organised in collaboration with Nigerian Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) and other stakeholders, according to the government is to reinforce the determination of the State government to transform tourism sites especially the beaches.
The State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs Toke Benson-Awoyinka said that “World Tourism Day, 2025 with the theme, ‘Tourism and Sustainable Transformation,’ was designed to identify assets of beaches in Lagos that are hidden treasures which if optimally explored would sell Lagos as a tourist market.”
Benson-Awoyinka said; “We want to revive our beach tourism. In Lagos, the assets we have are hidden treasures, and we want to sell Lagos as a market other than restaurants, nightlife, arts, culinary arts and fashion.
“We also want the world to know that there are places people can visit and that they don’t need to go abroad to have that same experience because we have the most beautiful beachfront here.”
During the pre-visit to the beach Benson-Awoyinka had said that “Lagos has 183 kilometers of beachfront on the Atlantic Ocean and we have the same thing on the route of the Lagos Creek, the Badagry Creek, but we are not taking full advantage of it,”
Positioning tourism
This thought was corroborated by the President of Nigerian Association of Tour Operators, NATOP, Mrs Bolaji Mustapha who mentioned that Lagos and Nigeria needs to be positioned like other international tourist sites around the world.
According to her “Nigeria has even greater potentials. With our culture, our landscape and our people, we must work together with the government and private sector. The government and private sector will work together and make sure to make the big things happen. We can make a nation where the world will want to visit again and again.”
Citing an example of Port Novo, Madagascar Museum with different kinds of potentials, she stressed, “We have in Nigeria Tarkwa Bay, with most organized waterway, security because we have present here the Navy, Air Force and Army and Ocean view resort where tourists can lodge,”
She noted that the community would have to be transformed, starting with improving the community by training the locals on how to be more hospitable to tourists.
Stakeholders at the event applauded the State government for the choice of Tarkwa Bay beach to celebrate this year’s World Tourism Day, as they emphasised that the idea would go along way to boost the tourism ecosystem particularly on the beachfront.