DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, in her State of the City Address (Soca), bared the gains of sports tourism that spiked city’s tourist arrivals in the first semester this year.
The mayor reported that the city already had a total of 1,167,256 tourist arrivals in the first six months, attributing this to the city’s successful hosting of the Davao Region Athletic Association (Davraa) Meet 2018 in February and the first Alveo Ironman 70.3 in March.
The Davraa Meet gathered some 7,000 delegates of athletes, coaches and officials from all cities and provinces in Davao region while the Ironman attracted some 1,800 entries from different parts of the globe.
Last year, the city had a record total of 2,012,625 tourists, exceeding the 1.9 million target.
Duterte-Carpio’s administration has at last realized that hosting huge sporting events lures tourists, domestic and foreign alike.
That explains why every year, regions and local government units are agog in bidding to host the Palarong Pambansa. No any other event could bring some 10,000 to 12,000 delegates who would stay at a host city or province for a minimum of seven days and 10 to 12 days max. The number even excludes the family members of participating athletes who would spend for hotel accommodations, plane tickets, meals and souvenirs and visit tourist attractions.
Since the city is hosting five huge events next year - Davraa Meet 2019, second Alveo Ironman 70.3, Private Schools Athletic Association (Prisaa) Regional Meet 2019, Palarong Pambansa 2019 and National Prisaa Games 2019 - all scheduled in the first five months, expect the city’s tourism to further flourish.
Once the Davao City-UP Sports Complex is completed, we can then host international competitions and do so every now and then aside from bringing in regional and national events.
Davao City, the biggest city in terms of land area, to be known as a sports tourism mecca in Mindanao is not far-fetched. But then again, we can all dream.