The last year has seen three new international destinations connect with our CIty. Jinjinang and Hongkong in China, Qatar in the middle east. The possibility that a Japan and South Korea flight may come is high, and so will the revival of the Manado, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu flight.
With the Davao region appearing on investors maps, the desire to see more of our region may prompt airlines to mount direct international flights.
With that, the record number of total tourist arrivals to the country in 2018 at 7 million ought to make us wonder how many of these foreign tourists have actually arrived in Davao.
This will help us contemplate our own offerings and strengths, and challenges as a region, and ask The truth is that ours is a region that something for a wide range of tourists.
After all, we have nice beaches in Samal, world heritage sites in Davao Oriental, adventure trips in Davao de Oro and Davao del Norte, highland resorts in the cool climes of our uplands, and cultural attractions in our towns and cities. We produce exotic and world class food, fruits and export quality chocolate and coffee that will create a craving.
Davao is a good destination worth exploring and discovering.
Yet the truth is that we still need to boost our inbound foreign tourist numbers. The 2.5 million tourists we hosted last year are mostly local visitors. Little wonder why domestic air tickets have become very expensive.
Local demand for travel to Davao is very high, but international air travel not as much. this lack of international passengers worries airline operators and may sometimes force them to discontinue the flight.
While have become experts at promoting our destinations to local tourists, the direct international flights serve the opportunity for us to attract foreign guests Its time we marketed ourselves to a wider world of visitors.
I cannot fault Our City Tourism officer Gene Rose Tecson for calling on the national government’s Tourism Promotions Board to lend Davao, and Mindanao, more attention in their promotion efforts.
In a recent tourism related event i attended in Manila, Mindanao did not figure prominently as other regions in the country’s tourism promotion efforts. Is it because we still have negative travel advisories from some countries? Are our facilities not enough for foreign tourists? our our tourist products suited for the foreign tourists?.
Perhaps understanding the needs and looking at the challenges will require industry level cooperation, and a strong partnership of stakeholders such as tourism organizations, hotels and restaurants with government, particularly the Department of Tourism (DOT). Only this kind of cooperation can harness the opportunities and address the challenges.
Towards this, some hope has been created to help put Davao in the global tourist map. Our Regional Tourism Director Tanya Rabat Tan is doing her best to push Davao into the orbit of international tour operators and tourist groups. The Japan National Tourist Organization JNTO attended our Davao investment conference two weeks ago and will look into cooperation with us to promote tourism ties. New hotels will come up in a few months.
Likewise, social media has brought many to see what the Davao region has to offer. impressive youtube videos and tourist testimonials will go a long way to convince would be tourists to visit us.
With these developments and enabling opportunities, perhaps its time the tourism sector and other stakeholders, and yes, we, all of us help develop and push the Davao brand and its product offerings for the foreign guest, and harness our collective effort to market and sell Davao as a destination to a larger market.
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