P65 billion from tourism

P65 billion from tourism

DAVAO City generated a total revenue of P64.65 billion from 2.39 million tourists in 2018, a city official said.

Davao City Investment and Promotion Center (DCIPC) head Lemuel Ortonio said in a phone interview Thursday, June 20, that the economic benefits include all the purchases they do in Davao City from the time they arrived.

"It is the way they spend their money here apart from the usual hotel or accommodation payments," he said.

During his presentation at the 5th Davao Investment Conference at the SMX Convention Center Thursday, June 20, Ortonio said the city is confident it could reach its target of three million tourist arrivals this year, which would mean increase of revenue.

"Tourism industry in Davao City is mainly driven by local tourists. However, in the past number of years, we have seen a growth in foreign arrivals," Ortonio said.

He said the top international arrivals in the city include Americans, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean visitors.

Due to the growing number of tourists in the city, City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) head Generose Tecson admitted the city still lack accommodation facilities to cater to the visitors.

This prompted the local government to encourage investors to venture on convention and exhibition centers and accommodation facilities such as hotels.

"Currently, we have two international hotel brands in the city and we hope that with the presence of these two brands, investors on tourism facilities will be encouraged to put up their own brand of hotels here," Ortonio said.

Meanwhile, he also mentioned the Halal tourism industry in the city as it posed as a halal-friendly city in the country not only to the Muslim consumers but also to the non-Muslims as people slowly understood its health advantages.

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