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Saturday, January 14, 2006
Tourism office: Davao to match ATF success in Cebu
By Nelson C. Bagaforo
THIS year's staging of the Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) in Davao City is expected to duplicate the tourism phenomenon in Cebu, which has been transformed into a major tourist destination in the world since it hosted the event nine years ago.
Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said ATF 2006 would boost Davao's tourism potentials as some 2,000 delegates from six continents around the world are coming over to participate in the forum, which will formally start on Monday.
Durano and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, local host committee chair, will welcome ATF delegates during a ceremony at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on January 17.
ATF secretary general Daniel Corpuz said all activities would give the world a new image of Mindanao as a premier destination in Southeast Asia.
"The Philippines will take advantage of ATF 2006 to kick off the development of Mindanao as a tourist haven and present it to the world in that perspective," Corpuz said.
Now on its 25th year, ATF is the region's premier travel trade show that serves as a one-stop shop for Asean tourism products and services and a forum for discussion of vital issues facing the region's tourism industry.
It envisions establishing the Asean region as a single and collective tourism destination with world-class standards, facilities, and attractions.
"Davao has all the infrastructure -- a world-class international airport, good roads, hotels and resorts, natural attractions, great food, effective local government, the best security system, peace-loving and law-abiding people, and everything else to make a fine menu for tourism," Durano said.
He said the ATF is an excellent start for the country's tourism, which surpassed its target of 2.6 million in foreign arrivals in 2005.
For this year, Durano is targeting at least three million foreign tourists as he sees the ATF setting the pace of the country's tourism performance.
Many of the ATF delegates are coming from the Philippine's major markets like the Asean, Japan, China, Korea, and North America where Durano has introduced a localized or market-specific, instead of umbrella, marketing strategy.
Durano said the benefits of ATF are also expected to spill over to the rest of Mindanao and across the archipelago as big foreign buyers and media have signed up for the post-event tours.
This include 10 for Subic, 14 for Pagsanjan, six for Corregidor, 34 for Cebu, 10 for Bohol, 31 for Palawan, 30 for Banaue, 40 for Boracay, 12 for Bicol, and 12 for Cagayan de Oro and Camiguin.
"No other event can give as much premium promotional value to Philippine tourism. And no amount of promotion can erase the stigma of Mindanao if we don't bring them here to experience its beauty and peace," Durano said.
Durano noted that the immediate income to be generated from ATF delegates is only P45 million, but the long-term benefits to the Philippine tourism could yield billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
As this developed, the Department of Tourism has prepared a new development and marketing package for Mindanao.
"We are developing Mindanao as the next banner tourism destination in the BIMP-Eaga (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area)," Tourism Undersecretary Oscar Palabyab said.
Palabyab said Davao city would serve as Mindanao's gateway and show-window.
Constituting the new Mindanao package is a menu of various tourism products and destinations, and all the development projects on the island's six regions.
Mindanao's regions include Western, Northern, Southern, Soccsksargen, Caraga, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
(January 14, 2006 issue)
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