WHY IN DAVAO?

Davao , the city of blooms from islands to highlands is the site of the 25th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), which will be held on January 13 to 21 , 2006.

Indeed, Davao City is blooming and booming from islands to highlands. Investments in terms of total capitalization of businesses continues to surge from only P62 billion in 2000 to P69 billion in 2001, P80 billion in 2002, P84 billion in 2003, and a whopping P118.5 billion in 2004. The sharp growth is very evident in the city’s tourism, construction, agriculture, and export sectors.

Tourist arrivals based on air passenger traffic and hotel occupancy volume have been consistently increasing since 2000 placing Davao City’s total tourism receipts at P5.22 billion in January-June 2005 alone, a 13-percent increase from P4.62 billion generated in the same period last year.

Similarly, this city had recorded an unprecedented increase in the value of private building construction, which skyrocketed to P7.4 billion last year from only P773 million in 2001.
So did exports, shooting up to $993 million in 2004 from $848 million in 2003 and $738 million in 2002, with the balance of trade further widening in Davao City’s favor.

“These figures are making Davao City even more attractive to tourists, many of whom are corporate executives and entrepreneurs on vacation who can’t ignore a business opportunity when they see one,” said ATF 2006 Secretary General and Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation Executive Director Daniel Corpuz.

Davao is the capital of the Southern Mindanao region and one of the world’s largest cities in terms of land area, spanning 244,000 hectares. This sprawling metropolis has emerged as the business, investment and tourism hub of Southern Philippines.

Citing Davao City as the next pillar of Philippine tourism, Durano said it was President Arroyo’s personal choice as the venue for ATF 2006.

The 25th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) slated in Davao City is expected to significantly boost the economy in Mindanao and prop up investor confidence in the region and the rest of the Philippines.

Imagine the kind of international exposure that Davao City and the rest of Mindanao will gain from the ATF, which will be participated in by throngs of delegates from the 10 member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the major wholesale travel trade buyers from all over the world, all translating to thousands of foreign and local visitors flocking to Southern Philippines during that nine-day event.

Tourism had contributed substantially to Mindanao’s expanding economy, which posted growth rates of 4.4 percent in 2002 and 4.5 percent in 2003 and consistently had accounted for around nine million of national employment.

There have been remarkable increments in the region’s air and sea transport volumes in terms of both passengers and cargo because of increased tourism activities, particularly in Southern and Northern Mindanao, which posted more than 1.2 million foreign and domestic tourists. The international airport in Southern Mindanao’s tourism and investment hub – recorded around 1.4 million incoming and outgoing passengers in 2004 while hotel occupancy rates posted a 6.5 percent increase in the January-June 2005 from its year-ago level.

The impact of these developments can be felt throughout the region’s economic landscape, especially in the food, transport, hotel, resort, entertainment, recreation, retail, and services sectors.

Quite evidently, the government is taking advantage of ATF 2006 to launch the development of Mindanao as a tourist haven and Davao as the center of the tourism industry in Mindanao and present it to the world in that perspective.

This move will thus correct the wrong perception that Mindanao is a not a safe place to visit, to invest in, or even to stay.

Participating in the ATF are the 10 ASEAN-member countries, their exhibitors from various sectors of the tourism industry, and 470 buyers and media from six continents. All these translate to thousands of foreign guests and tourists, who will soon see Mindanao in a totally different light.

Why in Davao ? The answers are obvious!