PUBLIC-PRIVATE partnership in tourism in the Davao region is believed to have been crafted during a two-day brainstorming in Davao City mid-week.
Closeted in a downtown hotel were leaders of the regional tourism council headed by hotelier Mary Anne “Baby” Montemayor and members of the Davao Association of Tourism Officers from local government units in the Davao area led by Compostela Valley’s Christine Dompor.
The planning session facilitated by the Department of Tourism under DOT Regional Director Arturo Boncato Jr. identified each locality’s top tourist destinations and included them in packages which will be vigorously promoted worldwide. The new media will be tapped in this marketing effort.
One focus of the promotion is culinary arts which offers something new and unique to both foreign and domestic visitors. Culinary arts, although the object of some percolating local promotional efforts for sometime now, is one strength of the region which is mainly untapped.
The brainstorming also looked into the various tourism needs of the localities.
If true, the good news is that most of the LGUs in the region have committed to allot a big chunk of their annual budget for tourism. Considering the central government’s usual hesitation to include Davao in particular, and Mindanao in general, in the national tourism roadmap due to the usual security boogey, this development is certainly heartening.
Public-private partnership for the advancement of tourism in the Davao region is definitely the right way to do it.
