THE staging of international events in Davao City for the past few months has helped position the city to be Mindanao's leading destination for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (Mice).
"Because of the different meetings that we have for the Asean Summit, we are showing the whole world that Davao is a Mice destination," said Roberto Alabado III, Department of Tourism Davao regional director, during the inaugural launch of Philippine Airlines' Clark-Davao-Clark route on February 1, 2016 at the Davao International Airport.
Davao's hosting of these international events has allowed it to showcase its capability to host such events.
It can be recalled Davao City hosted the launch of Philippines' Asean Chairmanship, an ancillary event of the Miss Universe 2016 pageant, and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's state visit to the Philippines. At present, the city is hosting a series of Asean-related meetings.
Alabado pointed out that the city still has room for improvement as a Mice destination.
"We cannot still handle very large events. Currently, our largest Mice facility is the SMX Convention Center in SM Lanang Premier which can accommodate 5,000 delegates. However, we are experiencing more than 5,000 delegates now," he said, adding that they hope the expansion plans for SMX Convention Center in Davao will push through.
"We will welcome that [the expansion of SMX Convention Center] very much because it will also allow this convention center to accommodate more people and more convention centers to open," Alabado said.
As for the hotel accommodations, he said more and more are being put up.
One to watch out for is the Dusit Thani Residences Davao in Lanang.
"That is a high-end hotel that will allow more high-end business meetings to be held here in Davao City but at the same time, smaller hotels are also being put up," Alabado said.
He said the recent developments in Davao City's Mice sector will serve as an attraction to groups and individuals to organize their activities here.
"The private sector has seen that there is an opportunity in the Mice sector so they are making these necessary infrastructure ready for such," Alabado said.