THE Davao City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) failed to achieve its target tourist arrivals in 2019 because of the unregistered self-styled accommodations.
Data from the CTOO bared 2.5 million visitors have come to Davao City last year, about 500,000 visitors lower than its target of three million tourists.
In a text message, CTOO chief Generose Tecson said they could have hit the target if they were able to record visitors booked in self-styled accommodations through home-sharing apps like AirBnB.
“Although, tumataas ang arrivals natin based on HOR (hotel occupancy reports), meron din malaking percentage na nakatira sa self-styled accommodation (Although our tourist arrivals increased, there is also a big percentage of visitors who stayed in self-styled accommodations),” she said.
She added it is the tourism industry’s current challenge apart from not contributing to the city’s revenue for not having business permits.
Meanwhile, the number of tourist arrivals in 2019 is 7.55 percent higher than the 2.3 million tourists in 2018.
Of the 2.5 million tourists in 2019, 2.3 million were local tourists, 182,825 were foreigners, and 45,697 were Overseas Filipinos.
From 2018, the number of domestic and foreign visitors slightly hiked while the number of Overseas Filipinos visiting the city declined.
There were only 45,697 Overseas Filipinos in 2019 compared to the 58,715 in 2018.
The highest year-on-year increase in tourist arrivals was observed in the month of June with 21.40 percent from 189,542 tourists in 2018 to 230,007 tourists in 2019.
Tecson said there had been many conventions held in the city in June, causing the surge in visitors.
She said for 2020, she sets the same target of 3 million tourists and is hoping to reach it at the end of the year.
As of November 26, 2019, the Department of Tourism in Davao Region (DOT-Davao) has recorded 3.2 million tourists who visited the region.
In 2018, the total tourist arrivals reached 3.9 million with an average of 331,294 visitors per month.
On average, it is equivalent to 2.9 million visitors for the third quarter of 2018 or a 9.2 percent growth rate to the third quarter of 2019 data alone.