THE month-long celebration of Kadayawan Festival aims to stretch the economic opportunities of the tourism facilities here, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said.
In an interview on Pastor C. Quiboloy's program Give Us This Day aired online Friday, August 2, Duterte-Carpio said the change from a week-long celebration to a month-long Kadayawan Festival is done in a "business sense" decision to provide economic and enjoyment opportunities both for the tourists and the businessmen in the city.
"This is a suggestion by our tourism sector which makes sense. Sinasabi kasi nila if we all put our events in one week, wala na tayong bisita after one week, so hindi natin ma-stretch ang economic opportunities ng hotels, ng malls, ng stores, ng businessmen. So gusto nila it's a month-long celebration para every day of the month, we have visitors who are buying, who leave their money diri sa atoa sa syudad sa Davao (They are saying that if we put our events in one week, we don't have visitors anymore after that week so we can no longer stretch the economic opportunities of our hotels, malls, stores, and businessmen. So they want it to be month-long so for every day of the month, we have visitors who are buying and leaving their money here in the city)," she said.
In a previously published article, City Tourism Operations Officer (CTOO) Generose Tecson said the adjustments of the schedule were made for tourists to have more time to explore the different parts of the city.
She also wished the tourists would have a good stay in the city given that the hotels and other accommodation facilities in Davao City quickly get fully booked as the festival comes to a close, based on their previous Kadayawan assessment.
She said major hotels in the city have around 95 percent of occupancy rate come Kadayawan.
This year, the CTOO expects around 250,000 domestic and foreign tourists to come and join in the celebration. This is almost 20 percent increase from last year's 208,645 tourist arrivals during the festival.
Further, Duterte-Carpio said with the spread-out schedule of the big events, a less heavy traffic situation should be expected.