Aside from instituting policies that will lead to higher public sector investments in 2010, the Davao City government will initiate programs and activities that will project the city’s image as among the top destinations in the country.
“We will bring in more events, more visitors through festivals, summits and conventions,” said Davao City Investment Promotion Center (DCIPC) chief Jason Magnaye.
To create a more conducive environment for tourists/visitors, the city government will also introduce policy changes to improve the city’s public transport system, including the use of roads and safety of pedestrians .
“We will give back the sidewalks to the pedestrians,” said Robert Alabado, chief of the city planning and development office (CPDO), who noted how tourists, especially foreigners, prefer to walk while taking in the sights of the city.
New festival
A new event in 2011 that the city government will spearhead is the holding of “Summerfest” which will highlight the local music industry and sports facilities like wakeboarding.
The major tourist attractions in Davao City so far are the Chinese New Year Festival, Araw ng Dabaw, Kadayawan sa Dabaw, Pasko Fiesta sa Dabaw and the Chinese Mooncake Festival.
Mangnaye said the city government is also coordinating with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) for the city’s hosting of an outsourcing summit tentatively slated in November 2011 to be “participated in by BPO players coming from all over the world.”
“That summit is expected to be one of the biggest gatherings ever to happen in the entire country,” he said.
Magnaye bared that a number of investors have expressed interest in putting up hotels, residential projects and even a convention center. “This will be an additional boost for our tourism sector.”
In terms of the number of visitor arrivals, the Davao region ranked 6th in the country.
Data obtained from the Department of Tourism (DOT) 11 show that in 2009 alone 672,863 tourists visited the region in 2009, a mere 2.21% increase from the 655,651 tourists recorded in 2008. Of the total number of visitors in 2009, only 52,240 were foreigners.
The average length of stay per visitor is 3.5 days with P4,000 average daily expenditures. With P9.42 billion estimated tourist receipts in 2009, the tourism industry brought in P20.72 billion total estimated economic benefits in the region.
Without disaggregated data for every city or province, Magnaye expressed hope that the city’s intensified tourism promotion activities will help the region to improve its ranking in terms of the number of visitor arrivals.
“Kahit babalik man lang tayo sa number three,” he said, referring to the ranking of the region in previous years.
Alabado said the city government will continue to institute policy reforms to effectively address the need of investors who want to invest in the tourism industry.
“We are expecting more hotels and commercial spaces that will complement property and real development occurring in various parts of the city. What we will do is introduce policies facilitative to their undertakings,” he said. [Greg G. Deligero]
