DAVAO CITY—Government and tourism industry players should drum up more attractions and create more festivities to serve as toppings to its durable attraction of cheap and fresh food and other existing amenities of travel.

Edwin Raymundo, general manager of Crown Regency Davao resort hotel, said the hotel and resort industry in the city, including the resort island of Samal, could enjoy a much higher occupancy than its already “above average” profitability if industry players and the Department of Tourism (DOT) could craft more reasons for tourists to be here.

‘Let’s create more festivities and gatherings, another one like the Kadayawan,” Raymundo said, referring to the fruit harvest festivities in late August in Davao City that has become an island-wide attraction.

He said more festivals would add to the durable reputation of the city of having cheap and fresh food and fruits, home to wildlife attractions such as the Philippine eagle and the waling-waling orchids, and being the favorite site of national conventions.

“We are already becoming the convention capital of the Philippines, and we are experiencing shortages of rooms,” he said. “But this is not all year-round.”

Creating more festivities would create the impetus for tourists, even local travelers, to be here most of the year, he said. He said that there were already the need for more hotels but there would be times of the year that competition among hotels and inns would be also felt.

For several years in a row, Davao City hotels and inns have reported no less than 60-percent occupancy, considered already profitable by Asian standard, the DOT said.

“We have common goal and aspirations [among hotels and inns] and these needs would be sufficiently addressed if we have more festivities, and we bid for international conferences,” he said.

He added that their group of hotel and tourism players meeting regularly has confidence in the city’s capability to host international conventions, citing the commendations it earned from tour and travel associations across the Asean region in hosting the 2006 edition of the Asean Tourism Forum.

Hotels and inns in this city of 1.2 million residents have devised ways to attract either more, or a certain section of the traveling clientele.

The Crown Regency group of hotels, for instance, according to Raymundo, has marketed itself Mediterranean, with Mediterranean villa clusters set against a sprawling garden setting.

“Aside from the well-traveled and the local tourists, we would also cater to clients who are seeking a different and another experience in accommodation,” he said.

The Crown Regency Davao has 62 rooms of four different types —standard, family villa, and executive villa.

The Crown Regency has four other locations: Cebu as its seat, Makati and Boracay.

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DAVAO CITY—Government and tourism industry players should drum up more attractions and create more festivities to serve as toppings to its durable attraction of cheap and fresh food and other existing amenities of travel.