DAVAO City will be bidding to host the Philippine Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions/Events (Mice) Conference in 2020.
Davao City tourism officer Generose Tecson said Davao City is capable of holding the conference in 2020 and has enough facilities to accommodate events and visitors.
"We are optimistic because we have gone to other conventions in other parts of the country and we can say that we are very much at par and some, if not all, of our activities are better than how they are represented in other places," Tecson said.
She said the City Government's strong cooperation with the private partners is also the city's advantage against other bidders.
"We have Iloilo and Clark who are also going to bid for the MICE Convention 2020 but we are very hopeful that we will be able to do this kasi naman po compared to the other areas, maganda po yung partnership natin with the private sector," she said.
"The city has a Mice program. It has been in place since 2014 and it is led by the private sector. Right now, the chairman is Ken Kapulong. And actually dito po sa atin kinopya ng Iloilo po ang kanilang Mice program," she said.
The Davao City Tourism is now working on the presentation of the Bid Book to the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) of the Department of Tourism (DOT).
"The Bid Book contains ano yung mga Mice facilities natin in Davao City, how are we going to do the activities for the Mice, sino yung mga tutulong in order to put together the convention here in Davao. Yun nalang pag-present, yun nalang yung inaayos namin," Tecson said.
She said it will be submitted on October 16, 2019 and the result would come out on October 23.
Tecson said they hope to stage the Mice convention on September 2020 if the TPB favors Davao City.
She said they will improve the incentives to be given to industries and organizers who will participate in the convention.
"It is just a matter of reinventing the incentives of our Mice program in order to get ready for the next year. We are going to strengthen mga incentives naibibigay natin for those organizers who will hold their conventions here in Davao," she said.
Meanwhile, she urged the industry players especially the accommodation sector to register their businesses and offered services to avail of the incentives.
"If they register, then they get a tourism license from us and we plan to put stickers po sa mga doors nila para maidentify na licensed silang city," she added.