On Dumaguete-Davao tourism link; Remollo proposes inclusion of Siquijor

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo recently finalized the tourism link with the addition of Dumaguete-Davao-Dumaguete flights three times a week of Cebu Pacific.

Remollo said the key here is connectivity because Negros Island Region, where Dumaguete City is located, is in the heart of the Philippines, a location that is very strategic in terms of tourist destinations and businesses.

As this developed, the Dumaguete City mayor said he also wanted Siquijor—as a “sub-province” of Negros Oriental—to be included in a “tripartite” agreement on tourism linkage with Davao, because the so-called “umbilical cord” between the Siquijor and Negros Oriental is not yet cut.

He asked tourism officers of the cities of Davao and Dumaguete to make the draft of the agreement for possible review during the Davao’s Kadayawan Festival in August, and to be finalized during the Dumaguete’s Sandurot Festival in September this year.

Siquijor Vice Governor Mei Ling Quezon, whose roots is from Davao, was grateful to Remollo “for taking us under his wings” in showing interest to put Siquijor into an agreement with Dumaguete and Davao for possible tourism linkages.

Siquijor has an airport but it can accommodate only a 9-seater plane with Cebu-Siquijor-Cebu flights three times a week. The province awaits funding from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines for the construction of a good terminal in the island-province.

For Cebu Pacific, Charo Lagamon, director for corporate communications, the Dumaguete-Davao flights together with the airline’s three other additional flights—Zamboanga-Cotabato, Zamboanga-Cagayan de Oro, and Cebu-Masbate routes—is unprecedented and a milestone in tourism development.

Meanwhile, Department of Tourism assistant secretary for Mindanao Eden Josephine David said she is expecting about 10 million arrivals of domestic and foreign tourists this year due to these additional flights of Cebu Pacific within, and to and from Mindanao.

In a message sent during the launching of the Dumaguete-Davao flight last week, David said tourist arrivals for the whole of Mindanao peninsula, and Western and Central Visayas regions can go up to as many as 10 million this year.

Key areas would include Dumaguete and Tacloban cities with estimates of 500,000 tourist arrivals each, Cebu with 700,000 and Masbate with about 250,000 more, as a result of the connectivity. (FREEMAN)