A 10 percent increase in tourist arrivals is expected this year for Davao City, a city tourism official said.
Davao City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) head Generose Tecson said the city is targeting to bring in 2,640,000 tourists in Davao City for 2019. Last year, the city welcomed 2,376,000 foreign and local tourists.
The newly launched flights between Davao City and key destinations in East Asia are among the factors that is seen to drive up tourist arrivals here.
In October 2018, Cathay Dragon, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, launched flights between Davao City and Hong Kong. Then in December 2018, Xiamen Air launched its Davao City-Quanzhou (Jinjiang), Fujian, China route.
Based from the city tourism office data, at least 19,572 Americans visited the city from January to November 2018. The second largest foreign group were the Japanese at 11,903, follwoed by Chinese (10,034), Koreans (8,038), Australians (6,435), Indians (6,043), Canadians (5,062), Singaporeans (4,556), British (3,837), and Arabs (2,486).
Tecson added Davao City will expect more foreign tourists and guests who will be visiting the city this year.
With the influx of tourist arrivals in the city, Tecson said the city must be ready in accepting guests with its hotel and other accommodation facilities.
Though a lot of hotels have been constructed last year, there is also a need for more convention facilities.
“Also we are targeting more Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) for this year,” Tecson said.
Meanwhile, Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCII) president Arturo Milan said the private sector through the city’s business community will continue to partner with city government in promoting Davao.
“On the tourism sector, we expect Davao will continue to attract big conference and activities in the city through the added international air connectivity right now will definitely increase foreign tourist arrivals in the city,” Milan said.