More and more tourists found Davao City too irresistible despite the implementation of Martial Law.
In fact, there was an increase of 13,000 tourist arrivals in Davao for the month of August during the celebration of the Kadadayawan Festival.
“We got more visitors this year compared to same month last year,” said Gene Rose Tecson, head of the City Tourism Operation Office Davao.
The city registered a total of 185,660 tourist arrivals for the month of August this year. On the same timeline there were only 171,851 arrivals in 2016.
The declaration of martial law triggered a significant drop in the number of tourists coming in the city. From 181,629 arrivals in the month of May it went down to 126,046 in the month of June.
“But during the month of August we were able to bounce back mainly because of the Kadayawan Festival and we superseded the arrivals in last year’s Kadayawan,” said Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte during her speech in Davao Turismo Conference.
She said the 2017 Kadayawan Festival is one best Kadayawans the city has celebrated.
The strict travel guidelines did not prevent tourists from coming to the city.“Mas marami pa ang nag punta na naki celebrate sa atin, and to think na martial law pa yun, the message is very clear na business as usual tayo dito sa Davao City,” said Renato “Gatchi” Gatchalian President of Davao Tourism Association.
He said that this is the best martial law, the Duterte martial law. “ Wee embraced the martial law, we even call it martial love because we felt so secured kaya siguro mas marami pang naki-celebrate sa Kadayawan,” Gatchalian said.
Tecson revealed that city has registered more than 1.2 million arrivals since January. “We are hoping to break 2 million, but I don’t know because that means we need 200,000 arrivals for the next four months until December, but I think it is already a very good number considering it is still martial law,” she said.
Tecson acknowledged there was still more room for improvements. “We need more color in the city, we started to talk with our local artists so that they could start painting murals in the walls of the buildings.
She said establishments should also light up their façades. She also encouraged the hotel establishments to submit their occupancy report on time.
