Davao City vies for tourism boost

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY — The local government has strengthened efforts to regain the city’s position as a major tourism destination in the country, particularly for meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions, or the so-called MICE market.

Recently, it partnered with the Department of Tourism’s Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) to prepare the city’s hosting of next year’s MICE Conference or MICECon.

“The event is all systems go,” said TPB chief operating officer Maria Margarita M. Nograles.

MICECon was slated in this city in October 2020, but then Mayor, now Vice President Sara Duterte, canceled it due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We strongly believe and claim that Davao’s hosting of the MICECon will provide a tremendous boost to the city’s tourism industry and is a huge step towards its own vision of making Davao a preferred MICE destination not only in the Philippines but in Asia,” said Nograles.

The event is expected to gather about 500 MICE industry leaders from the country and abroad.

Aside from the sessions hosted in the SMX Convention Center, the event will also feature the tourist spots of the city and the diverse culture of its people.

Nograles lauded Mayor Sebastian Duterte for “recognizing the massive role that MICE tourism could play not only for Davao as the host city, but will also contribute a direct positive impact to our country’s economic returns.”

Vice Mayor J. Melchor Quitain Jr. said the event would also help promote the city as a destination of investments.

“The next time people think about business and leisure, they will think of Davao because the city has the infrastructure, tourism attractions, and capacity to hold national and international events,” Quitain added.

With its attractions and amenities, Davao City has been a major host for regional and national MICE events by public and private sectors, driving the influx of tourists into the city and in other areas in the Davao region.

In the 11 months of 2019, before the pandemic, tourist receipts in the city amounted to P51 billion generated from some 2.34 million arrivals.

The tourist receipts almost doubled in four years, from P26.2 billion in 2015.

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