29 September 2022
The City of Davao’s tourism sector is currently preparing for tourists arriving during the remaining major holidays of the year.
City Tourism Office (CT0) officer-in-charge Julieta Catacutan, during the I-Speak media forum on Thursday, said their office is laying the groundwork to ensure the safe and convenient stay of visitors in the city.
“Ang amoang main goal karon is kining atoang tourist arrivals considering na hapit na atoang Kalag-kalag and All Saints’ Day ug atoang Christmas season (Our main goal right now is our tourist arrivals, considering All Souls’ Day, All Saints’ Day and our Christmas season is almost here),” Catacutan said.
With this, Catacutan urged all businesses under the city’s tourism industry to secure all necessary legal requirements for their operations.
“We are closely coordinating with different tourist-related establishments to get their business permit and make sure they are truly accredited by the city para pag-abot sa panahon, dili na magkaproblema ang turista diri sa city, ug makahatag pud ta og safe na pagserbisyo sa ilaha (so that when the time comes, tourists will no longer have problems in the city, and we can provide them with safe services),” she said.
Catacutan said the city’s tourism industry is now recovering after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as proven by the successful execution of the Kadayawan Festival in August.
From January to August of this year, Davao City welcomed 529,551 tourists. Of these, 502,650 are Filipinos and 23,400 are foreigners.
The city was visited by 317,804 tourists in 2021 while 618,034 visited in 2020.
Although the tourist arrivals for this year is significantly higher than the past two years and is expected to rise even more as the holiday season approaches, these numbers are still a far cry from the city’s record high of 2,573,990 tourists logged in 2019.
The implementation of Davao City’s Tourism Master Plan under the Tourism Development Services of Mayor Sebastian Duterte’s “12 Point Priority Agenda,” which is currently awaiting the endorsement of the city council, will help in identifying and cementing the city’s tourist destinations to invigorate the tourism industry post-pandemic, Catacutan said. CIO
