Davao City tourist arrivals picking up

Tecson said she is happy with the increasing number of visitors and hopes this will continue. (PNA PHOTO)

DAVAO CITY— The number of tourist arrivals in Davao City is picking up after suffering losses in May, the City Tourism Operations Office reported.

City Tourism Officer Generose Tecson said most hotels are fully booked since the early days of the month, which is a very welcone sign.

Tecson said the city has about 10,000 rooms, including accommodation in pension houses and similar other categories. Of the total rooms, about 3,200 are accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT).

In comparison to arrival in 2016, Tecson said the city has more arrivals this year. The city’s target arrival for 2017 is two million.

During the first half of the year, she said arrivals already accounted to 930,136 or an increase of 3.6 percent compared to 896,983 in the same period last year.

She admitted however that there was a drop in June when martial law was declared but the arrivals has started to pick up starting July maybe because there is confidence to travel here is back.

The city has also beefed up tourism promotions even putting billboards bearing Davao events, activities and destinations in Manila, Bacolod and Cebu.

This is part of the Kadayawan Festival promotional campaign. The holding of conventions has also been put on schedule.

Tecson said she is happy with the increasing number of visitors and hopes this will continue.

As foreign visitors comprise only about 10 per cent of the total figure, she is hoping foreign tourists will visit Davao City especially when the Kuala Lumpur-Davao direct route of AirAsia starts in December.

Tecson said that the tourist both domestic and foreign spends about P7,000 per visit for 3 days and 2 nights stay.

Meanwhile, Tecson welcomed the visit of a group of millennials from Manila who worked as software engineers in Taguig’s McKinley area for a multinational IT company.

The group is now seeing a different perspective about Davao City after ending a four-day visit here this week.

First time Davao visitors John Montano and Kimberley Ann Gonzales from Quezon City were not scared anymore while Erika Demanarig of Antipolo City and Paolo Polondey of Marikina City who came for a return visit never changed their mind of putting off Davao among their must visit destinations this year, together with their officemate Jose Banzon III, a native of Davao City.

Montano said he makes sure to correct the wrong impression that people in Manila think about this place, blessed with rich natural resources, good food, nice people, a very peaceful place, a clean city and awesome diving sites.

“With our happy and fun experience we will come back to Davao City and make sure we will time our next visit during the Kadayawan Festival,” the young software engineer said.