Mindanao tourism agenda pushed at Kadayawan fest

MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of tourists flocked to Davao City recently for the Kadayawan 2016 festivities, as authorities sought stakeholders’ support for a Mindanao tourism agenda.

Department of Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Teo said the DOT intends to make the current international attention on Davao a major turning point for Mindanao tourism.   

“The interest in Davao is really high these days, as people want to see how then mayor Rodrigo Duterte has managed the city,” said DOT Mindanao officer-in-charge Eden Josephine David, in light of the increasing visitor arrivals in Davao City at the onset of Duterte’s presidency.

David added that the DOT is banking on the new administration’s plan to implement the Mindanao Logistics Infrastructure Network as part of its revitalized infrastructure spending, to help address the connectivity and infrastructure gap of the region.

One of the immediate plans of the DOT Mindanao is to push for the Samal-Davao City connecting bridge project to address the growing number of island visitors.

Latest data from DOT Region XI showed Davao City recorded 1.70 million visitor arrivals from January to December 2015, 1.56 million of whom were domestic travelers, while 128,333 were foreign visitors. Overseas Filipinos, on the other hand, numbered 14,699. A total of 161,339 visitors were tallied in August of the same year alone, with 12,142 foreign arrivals and 147,207 local visitors.  

Marco Polo Davao’s Dottie Viajar Wurgler-Cronin, who had a brief meeting with Teo at the sidelines of Kadayawan 2016, said she is confident that “Davao and the entire Mindanao region would be given more attention now that we have a tourism secretary from the region.”            

Without discounting other regions, she expects a “better understanding of what we have and can offer from this region,” the first Filipina general manager of Marco Polo Davao said.