MY CONSULTING job requires a lot of travels to different countries.

Consequently, I observe quite a lot of things that I wish could be implemented in our country, especially our beloved Davao City, to enhance the experience of tourists and investors when they visit.

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In Bali and Singapore, they have a tourist desk at the arrival area of the airport where visitors can conveniently seek help. All the city's hotels deposit their brochures there for distribution to prospective guests. The desk officer also has a complete list of all hotels, a map showing where they are, and their room rates for the day.

The visitor looking for a hotel is asked his preferred location and/or his budget and he is then given a set of suggested hotels. After he makes his choice, the desk officer calls the hotel to inquire about room availability and makes the reservation in behalf of the visitor.

After the reservation is made, the guest pays a deposit of 10 percent of the room rate to the desk officer and is issued an official receipt (I suppose this deposit is turned-over to the hotel later, but I don't know for sure).

This set-up puts the visitor's mind at ease as he leaves the airport knowing exactly where to go and being sure of his hotel reservation when he arrives there.

I further suggest that the following be made available in such a tourist desk: free city road maps and travel and tourism brochures (these can be funded out of ads by hotels and tourism-related establishments), a big city map posted on a wall, books about Davao City for sale, and a pay phone with a phone directory. It goes without saying that the desk officer should always be ready with coins for changing paper money.

Davao's road signs, on the other hand, are visitor unfriendly. New street names are printed there but the locals largely don't know them. How many of you know where Pelayo St. is? That's the old Legaspi St. What about Inigo St? It is Anda. (To make things worse, there's also an Inigo St. in Bo. Obrero.)

How about C. Bangoy St? It's Ponciano. (Worse again, there's an F. Bangoy street near Quezon Blvd that confuses a lot of people). Don Julian Rodriguez Ave.? It's Ma-a Road. Carlos P. Garcia Hi-way? It's Diversion Road.

Try to imagine for a moment that you are from another province, say, Agusan del Sur, and you drive your car to Davao City. You call your friend from Davao to ask for some directions and he tells you a street name of an office you want to go to. Most likely, he tells you the locally popular former street name. You drive around and around the city looking for the said street name but you'll have difficulty finding it because what are written in the street signs are only the new names, many of which are largely unknown to the locals.

Reverse the situation. Before reaching Davao, you look up a new map that only prints the new names. As you arrive in Davao, you ask some locals where the street is. What do you know? Most locals don't recognize the new name!

Suggestion: in the new road signs, print the former street name below the new street name.

Another confusing situation in the city is the absence of clear guidelines in relation to streetlights in road crossings. Most road crossings have no signs on whether or not it is allowed to turn right when the red light is on (only a few crossings have a fourth light for right turn). Oftentimes, I stop in intersections with no right turn lights to wait for the green light before turning but the other drivers following me usually blow their horns to egg me to turn right immediately. I've asked a lot of friends who are supposed to be educated drivers and nobody has a sure answer on this matter.

You have any other suggestions for making our city less confusing and more visitor-friendly? Email them to me and I'll feature them in my future columns.

Email comments to idtabije(at)gmail.com

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(January 5, 2009 issue)
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