Samal city tour goes on for convention delegates
DAVAO CITY—Despite last week’s abduction of three foreigners and a Filipino woman in the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte province, delegates to the 16th National Convention of the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines will tour the city as part of their activities.
Some 200 people are expected to attend the four-day convention here starting tomorrow.
Noel Daquioag, provincial tourism officer, acknowledged that the Samal tour was meant as a “damage control” measure to the Sept. 21 seizure by armed men of Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, and Filipino Marites Flor during an attack on an exclusive marina in the city.
“The tourism sector, both government and private, is beefing up the marketing and promotion of Samal Island,” Daquioag said. He claimed that that Samal had remained on top of the list of tourist destinations in Southern Mindanao.
He said the convention delegates would be visiting the Monfort Bat Cave and the “taklobo” (giant clams) sanctuary in Barangay Adecor in Kaputian District. So far, he said, there had been no cancellations of bookings in any of the resorts on the island because of the abduction.
This should be enough reason for tourism stakeholders in Samal not to get too much affected by the incident and that they should continue to work harder to attract visitors, he said.
In 2014, Samal became one of the most visited areas in the Davao provinces, posting a total of 679,392 visitor arrivals. Of the number, 29,477 were foreigners while 649,915 were domestic visitors.
Lisette Marques, head of the Davao City Tourism Office, said it would not be helpful if people would react so much to the abduction.
Davao del Norte Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario said the provincial government had remained confident in keeping the safety of Samal even as it pushed for the upgrading of security plan for the entire island.
“I asked our security forces, resort operators and local government units to strengthen the security of our destinations in order to protect our guests. All necessary measures must be put in place so that no tourist will ever escape their watch,” Del Rosario said.
He said more security forces would be needed to secure the island, which has a land area of more than 30,000 hectares.
“It is not that easy to secure (Samal), but the important thing is that they must establish a security plan and a heightened defense to fully guarantee the safety of their guests and residents,” he said.
