The Kadayawan 2025 will have a total budget of P74 million. P60 million will come from the city government of Davao and P14 million from the private sector.
Lawyer Jonah Margarette F. Presto, Officer-In-Charge of the City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO), announced on Thursday that the P60 million budget for Kadayawan 2025 reflects a reduction of P7 million from the budget allocated for last year’s Kadayawan festival.
“For this year, we have an overall budget of P60 million. There is a decrease of P7 million. If you observed, we have four festivals in a year, so we have diversified our resources and we have to make those adjustments in the budget to cater for the events,” Presto said in a press conference during the launching of Kadayawan 2025 at Rogen Inn in Davao City.
Presto expressed optimism that, with the support of the private sector, the city will have sufficient resources for this year’s festivity.
Presto also assured that the slashed budget won’t affect the prizes in major competitions.
For the private sector’s part, Nicole Hao Bian Ledesma, president of the Davao Tourism Association (DATA), which is part of the Kadayawan execom’s Ways and Means Committee, said they were able to raise a total sponsorship of P14 million for both ex-deal and cash.
“That is as of date, and we are still in the process of negotiating with more entities to sponsor because what is so nice with Kadayawan is that a lot of companies are really interested in supporting the festival,” she said.
Besides DATA, the Ways and Means Committee is also composed of the Davao Chamber of Commerce of Industry, Inc., (DCCCII) and the MICE Board.
Meanwhile, Presto said that they are expecting to increase the number of tourist arrivals for this year’s festival.
“Yes, we are expecting we have a higher number of tourist arrivals. Hopefully, we can increase it to 50% from last year,” she said.
Presto recalled that last year’s month of August, the city had recorded almost 200,000 tourist arrivals, both local and foreign tourists.
She also emphasized that increasing tourist arrivals is not only an effort during Kadayawan but for the entire year.
“Of course, we aim for a higher number of tourist arrivals for this year. But in terms of tourist arrivals, it is not only an effort during Kadayawan but for the whole year. As mentioned, there have been roadshows in Japan done in June, and last year we were able to join a roadshow in Australia. If we target a higher tourist arrival is not an effort for the month of Kadayawan alone but for the entire operations of the tourism industry,” she said.
