
The Executive Governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu, has hailed the sustenance of the Akwaaba Travel Market over the years, despite challenges, saying that the event has shaped hospitality, travel and tourism in Nigeria.
Otu made this commendation while declaring open the 19th Akwaaba Travel Market at Eko Hotels and Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos.
This is just as a former senator of the Republic of Nigeria and lover of hospitality, Senator Ita Giwa, also commended the consistency of Akwaaba, harping more on this year’s focus on medical tourism as ideal for Nigeria now.
The Governor also unveiled the Carnival Calabar & Festival theme for 2023 as ‘Season of Sweetness.’
The event which commenced on Sunday has once again electrified the Eko Hotel area of Victoria Island Lagos by the exciting activities it is noted with.
The annual event, exciting and entertaining with carnivals, and traditional dances of all forms awed many of the dignitaries and visitors that graced the occasion.
Commenting on the carnival Calabar, the Governor said Cross River offers the world Africa’s warmest welcome through the ‘Carnival Calabar’, adding that “It was and still is a strategic plan for the actualisation of the vision of transforming Cross River State.

He explained that the carnival exhibits rare colours, costumes, floats, pyrotechnics, magic, acrobatics, and more through the 12 kilometres carnival route, acting as the pull factor to bring tourists to Cross River State and Nigeria every year.
The Governor said: “Today, we are here to witness another theme unveiling, which stands our carnival out as an intellectual platform to entertain, educate, and inform our publics and audiences
“It was and still is a strategic plan for the actualisation of the vision of transforming Cross River State socio-economically through the instrumentality of the performing arts,” adding that his administration would deploy all efforts at sustainability and inclusion to achieve set goals through a robust Public Private Partnership framework.
“Moving forward it is the belief of my administration that the Carnival has come of age and should deploy all efforts at sustainability and inclusion to achieve set goals exploring a robust Public Private Partnership framework to achieve mutually beneficial relations in naming rights, endorsements, sponsorships, merchandising and activations,” he added.
Also speaking at the event Giwa also commended the Organiser of Akwaaba Travel Market, Ambassador Ikechi Uko, for his consistency and focus on holding the Travel Market annually, even in thick and thin, and especially for this year’s theme focusing on medical tourism.
According to her, medical tourism is what will help Nigeria, “I look forward to medical tourism existing here, so that people won’t be travelling out for medical tourism.”
Elaborating on the Carnival Calabar, Giwa who is also an indigene of Calabar said the dance is used to tell critical stories of things that happen in the world through singing, dancing and costumes.
“We tell the story of topical issues through dance and costumes. It is a very challenging intellectual exercise; for instance, we took up the issue of climate change and through the carnival we used objects, images and dance to tell this story.
“We showcased industrialisation in the last carnival, how the black man found himself. We travel out to go and get intellectuals to come and interpret these things so as December and Christmas are approaching people will be thinking of Nigeria and Cross River State as a place to come and spend the Christmas.
Highlight of the event was the jollof rice war with various experienced chefs in the hospitality sector and the ‘Under 40 Travellers Award.’
Akwaaba African Travel Market is an international travel, tourism and hospitality event organised annually in Lagos aimed at businesses, investors, governments, decision makers and buyers in the industry.