Emeka Anokwuru
Poised to deliver the best of experience in the leisure world to the people, the management of La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort has launched a new project, aimed at exploring the beauties of Lagos waters and also cut down on the travelling hours from any part of Lagos to the resort, located in Ikegun Village, Ibeju Lekki. Tagged La Campagne, Radisson Blu Boat Cruise Life Style, the new service by La Campagne in partnership with Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel, Victoria Island, was launched recently at Radisson Blu during a colourful ceremony witnessed by a number of guests and stakeholders in the industry.
The formal launch ceremony climaxed with a boat cruise from the hotel’s jetty to the resort, with the over 40 minutes cruise on the Lagos waters offering guests a foretaste of what the new service has to offer. The experience on this day was quite unique and went beyond the normal boat cruise offerings. It was all embracing package, spiced with entertainment onboard and climaxing with a bouquet of dining and leisure packages at the resort, including an array of water sports and leisure and entertainment by Atunda Entertainment with the trio of Anu, Lady Ekwe, Olomidan bata and Ara (Thunder), enthralling the guests with a blend of African and contemporary tunes.
Speaking during the launch ceremony, the President of La Campagne, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, described the boat cruise project as harvesting the vast wealth of Lagos waters.
For him, it is a yet another dream come through even as he lamented the waste being visited on the vast coastal line across the country and Lagos, which has remained under – utilised over the years by the government and Nigerians, a situation, which he said has contributed to the poverty and suffering in the land.
He reeled off some amazing statistics to the amazement of the guests in underscoring the depth of wealth that is laying fallow and wasting away. For instance, he disclosed that Lagos lagoon spans a space of 211 kilometres, with over 198 kilometres of beachfront spread across while Nigeria as a whole boasts over 804 kilometres stretch of beachfront spread across over six states, with Lagos blessed with the largest beachfront.
The good news, he said, is the fact that La Campagne has now found a worthy partner with whom they can now explore the fallow Lagos water so as to offer a new experience in water leisure, as it is done in other saner climes, to Nigerians, especially tourists, who for years have yearned for opportunity to explore the beauties and riches of the Lagos waters.
For him, Lagos waters is very calm and is a rich attraction for water leisure enthusiasts but like most of other attractions in Nigeria, they remain attractions because no attempt have been made to turn them into tourist attractions or a tourist destinations.
But with the new partnership with Radisson Blu Hotel, all that is now changing, as Lagos waters is going be turned into a tourist attraction, a tourist destination that everyone will desire to explore in the coming days.
‘‘We are breathing life into Lagos water with this new project,’’ which according to him, will make a difference in the way people travel and explore the waterways because it is the break of a new dawn for lovers of water sports and leisure. As the boat cruise is not going to be the normal boat cruise, adding that this is a leisure boat cruise with a lot of entertaining offerings attached to it.
‘‘It is not about cruising on water only,’’ said Akinboboye of the boat cruise, explaining that the boat will ferry guests from the hotel in the early hours of the morning after breakfast to the resort. While onboard they will be treated to lavish and savoury offerings such as musical, dance and comic shows of all sorts.
According to him, a well fitted and stylishly decorated boat will be deployed for the service. Onboard entertainment, he said is going to be first class and nothing near what people are used to before. The onboard entertainment, he further noted will feature such sessions as sax time with popular saxophonists and keyboard time with popular keyboardist as well as time out with Atunda Entertainment crew, led by Anu, Olo and Ara.
At the resort, the guests will further be treated to exciting top packages designed in the unique style of the award winning and world acclaimed African theme resort. With the resort recently taking delivery of top class water sports and leisure equipment, he said guests will have fun and enthralling moment at the resort with dining on the lagoon.
The Director of Sales and Marketing of Radisson Blu, Wellington Mpofu, expressed delight with the project, disclosing that it is a way of the hotel contributing to developing the tourism business of the city hence it has partnered the resort in birthing the boat cruise project, which he said will not only boost the profile of both the hotel and resort but also offer a new experience to their guests. With the boat cruise, ‘‘you are going to have an amazing time of your life,’’ said Mpofu, adding that: ‘‘We are going to have a good ride on Lagos waters. This is going to revolutionise the way we view tourism in this city. It is a new paradigm shift and what we do with people visiting the city.’’
Furthermore, he said it is not only going to typify what the city has to offer visitors but that ‘‘the synergy between the two organisations is a development that is going to change the face of tourism in the city. People have been seeing this water and have been on it but now we have both decided to build an exciting packages around that our people find difficult to resist.’