DAVAO City Mayor Sebastian "Baste" Duterte encouraged the private sector to "do their part" to achieve the pre-pandemic tourism arrivals during his State of the City Address (Soca) on July 28, 2023 at the Sangguniang Panglungsod.
"We have about 848,145 tourist arrivals from July 2022 to June 2023, medyo layo pa na siya sa pre-pandemic na atong mga (it's quite far from our pre-pandemic) figures which is two million, pero (but) it's not bad," Duterte said.
"Pero kung mahimo (If possible,)... it should be a collective effort man gud... private sector, especially, kailangan (it is needed that) you have to do your part," the mayor added.
Duterte had also recognized the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (Mice) convention and the 70.3 Ironman triathlon as events that stimulated the Davao City economy coming from the Covid-19 pandemic 'bear' market.
He said a lot of people had a "good response" attending these events.
"We're very lucky that Davao City has been introduced not only in this country but also to the entire world," Duterte said.
The city mayor also emphasized the importance of sisterhood city agreements, mentioning sisterhood deals with Mati City and Sennan City, Osaka, Japan.
Duterte said this is one way for the city government to make collaborations for trade and tourism.
"Basig (Perhaps) you know, there are commodities that we can trade, or maybe their constituents can visit our city for tourism and vice versa," Duterte said.
Meanwhile, in an earlier report, Davao City Tourism Operations Office officer-in-charge Jennifer Romero said they will be expecting around 180,000 to 200,000 tourist arrivals for August 2023, in time for the Kadayawan festival.
Romero, together with the Kadayawan executive committee (execom), is expecting a significant increase in the number of tourists, who are "banking on revenge travel".
Last year, the city recorded 110,000 tourist arrivals.
"This is an ambitious target for 2023, but we are still working... ang ato (Our target) is to really hit the pre-pandemic figures, and that is 2019," Romero said.