Jimenez: It's fun in Davao with DOT Director Art Boncato

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

DURING my recent trip to Davao City for the holding of the Sports Tourism Conference 2012 Davao, I had the pleasure and honour to meet the political-willed City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte. She is the daughter of former Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who holds the tag of cleaning the city with those unwanted hooligans and nincompoops who attempt to destroy the image of Davao City, holding the record as the biggest city in the world area-wise, when it was not yet subdivided into Norte, Sur, Oriental and whatever.

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With Mayor Inday Sara was her active and brainy City Tourism Officer Jason Magnaye. And right in the midst of all the participants, we noticed the humble but very, very active Department of Tourism Director Art Boncato. Art was Executive Assistant Manager of Marco Polo Hotel Davao before he was lured to join the government sector. Whoever picked the guy never regretted getting this young guy into the tourism picture.

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Director Art is one noticeable government figure coming from the private sector. And one good thing about him is he has much time to serve his purpose. He is not an eight-hour man sitting in his tourism office and back home after office hours. He has time to treat his guests to a luncheon or a tour or a dinner. Well, this is the purpose of a tourism officer in government.

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That is why there is more Fun in Davao. And that is because Art Boncato is the Man. Many tourism circles also dream that their respective tourism leaders in their respective regions should already be the young in mind and young in aspirations. Many regional directors, we were told, have already stayed in their seats for decades and they have no more expanded opportunities of learning more. So maybe it is time to retire them, huh.

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Davao is a peaceful city. Tourist destinations are the Samal Island, Eden’s Nature Mountain Resort, Davao Crocodile Farm, Malagos Garden, Jack’s Ridge, and more. Insular Waterfront Hotel is also a landmark of the city for four decades now and still stands as a resort hotel providing good accommodation and great food for its guests.

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Not to forget the abundance of Durian, the King of Fruits, along with mangosteen, rambutan, marang, lanzones, and the sweety pomelo. Shopping is also a great moment of escapade in Davao City. And we saw the SM Supermall building a very big complex and said to be just a bit smaller than SM’s Mall of Asia.

It is best to visit Davao by flying Cebu Pacific Air from Manila or Cebu and now from Iloilo, daily. Kudos to Inday Sara and Art! And there is SUN.STAR in Davao.