DAVAO City is no longer included in the travel advisories issued by at least two embassies on its citizens planning to travel to Mindanao.
Travel advisories issued by Japan now explicitly say that while travel to Mindanao is still strictly discouraged, it recommends to visit the center.
In Mindanao, aside from Davao, the city of Cagayan de Oro is exempted by the Japanese Embassy from their travel advisory as well.
The Canadian Embassy, for its part, states that it "advises against all travel to the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, the Zamboanga Peninsula, Saranggani, Lanao del Norte, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat (excluding the urban areas of Davao City)."
The said move was strongly welcomed by the business sector as it will boost the city's investment portfolio.
"This is what we have been asking for a long time already. We all know that the so called 'dangerous areas' of Mindanao are nowhere near Davao City," Domingo Duerme, Mindanao vice president of Philippine Airlines, said during Wednesday's Club 888 forum at the Marco Polo Davao.
The local business chamber, the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Incorporated, (DCCCI) wrote several correspondences to the various embassies.
Dabawenyos have long criticized the travel advisories issued by the various embassies that encompass the entire Mindanao even if the conflict is limited to a specific area only.
Davao City is widely known as one of the most peaceful and orderly urban centers in the Philippines, but is marred with the generalizations that the entire Mindanao is a conflict area.
Other travel advisories issued by various embassies still generalize Mindanao as a conflict area, without any exemption.