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DAVAO CITY—Business
and conventions attracted many of the visitors here and
the nearby provinces and outbound travelers have not
become the monopoly of urban dwellers nowadays.
Most of
the business, conventions and leisure travels were being
reported in Davao City and the resort Island Garden City
of Samal, accounting for 85 percent of travels being
accommodated in its hotels and inns.
This
city, acknowledged as the premier southern seaport in
Mindanao, actually accounted for 79.71 percent alone of
all the 804,333 visitors that came here last year in the
Davao region, according to the Department of Tourism
(DOT).
Reported
by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda)
in its Economic Performance in 2007 and Development
Prospects for 2008, it said 44 percent of the visits to
the region was related to business.
Twenty-eight percent came here to attend conventions and
conferences, as Davao City continued to lure national
associations of professionals and government agencies
with its proximate resorts in Samal island, its fruits
and flowers, lowest crime rate in the country and the
famed reputation of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Another
20 percent came for holiday and leisure visit.
The
resort island of Samal, which boasts of the fine beaches
and dive sites, attracted 5.72 percent of the total
number of visitors, although the other provinces closely
contested the rest of the other visitors venturing
further out of the city.
Davao
Oriental, famous for its prime location to witness the
first sunrise of the millennium in the
Philippines,
and its cheap deep-sea fishes, attracted 3.86 percent of
the visitors. Tugging closely was Davao del Sur, noted
for its mangoes that have been certified by an
Australian phytosanitary team, with 3.74 percent of the
visitors.
Compostela
Valley,
the gold-rush area capital of the Philippines with its
Diwalwal mines in Monkayo and Boringot mines in
Pantukan,notched 3.71 percent of visitors. The
province’s executives and tourism officers have
aggressively marketed its annual mountain climbs, with
additional attractions of its caves and one of the
largest flowers in the world.
Davao
del Norte cornered 3.25 percent of the visitors,
although the Island Garden City of Samal officially
belongs to this province.
Filipinos still account for much of the travels,
comprising 92 percent of all travelers, including the 2
percent of balikbayans and overseas Filipino workers.
A look
at a domestic traveling pattern in one of the
progressive rural cities in the region like Panabo in
Davao del Norte, would indicate that rural residents
have also become frequent travelers lately, fueled
largely by the booming banana economy.
Jera
Subayno, officer in charge of one of three travel
agencies operated by the Dizerlin Travel and
Tours in
Panabo
City, said inquiries were surprisingly more than
expected from this city, selling at 35 seats daily on
the average for one airliner alone during peak season,
and 20 passengers during nonpeak season.
Most of
the travelers were government workers, bank personnel
and officials, and those that enjoyed the perks of
seasonal pricing that periodically command very high
prices during off-season production.
“Many of
them attend conventions in
Manila
and Cebu, and some go to Bacolod or Palawan,” she said.
“Some of our clients are from Davao City, but they even
call us here for reservations.”
Subayno
said that progressive cities like Panabo have turned in
profits for business in the travel industry, saying
rural economies “are probably improving.”
She said
they operate online for Philippine Airlines and its
sister airliner, Air Philippines, and Cebu Pacific.
These
airlines, along with foreign airlines that serve Asian
destinations in direct and connecting flights, have
reported though a decline in number of domestic
passengers traffic compared with 2006.
The Neda
said that domestic passenger traffic at the Davao
International Airport last year, reaching 1,480,408, was
lower by 1.5 percent than in 2006. But cargo traffic
increased to 45.5 million tons last year, up by 9.6
percent the previous year.
But
international travel rose dramatically by 60.6 percent
last year, to 53,856 passengers, compared with 33,663
passengers in 2006.
The Neda
ascribed this to “extensive tourism development and
promotion, lower fare rates and the opening of
additional international flights plying the region.”
The Neda
said there were 11 international flights per week for
Inchon in South Korea, Manado in Indonesia and Hong Kong
and Singapore. International cargo traffic reached
15,455 tons last year.
Foreign
travelers accounted for 8 percent of the total number
of visitors here in the region, and were distributed
among the nationals of
Japan,
Korea, the US, China and Austalia.
Although
the number of Japanese declined by 10 percent, this was
more than offset by the jump in the number of Koreans,
by nearly 320 percent, coming mainly to Davao City to
learn the English language and to establish stores
selling used vehicles and televisions and computers,
cheap household, hardware and other industrial items.
The DOT
figures of total number of visitors may be bigger than
reported, though, as the Neda said the DOT figures were
culled only from the hotel occupancies reported. The
total number was 5.7-percent higher than the previous
year’s level. |
