DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Exempting the city from Martial Law promises positive effects to the city’s tourism, an official said.
“That (exception from Martial Law) would be very good because there are countries like Japan which hesitates to send tourists here because of the Martial Law,” said Tourism Officer Regina Rose Tecson.
She said Japan already expressed its interest to invite more of their nationals to come in here.
“We had the opportunity to talk to Japanese tourism associations and they said that one factor of the hindrance of coming over to Mindanao, even here in Davao, is because of Martial Law,” she added.
Tecson hope of a better place for the city’s tourism once it will be exempted from Martial Law.
“We are certainly hoping so that it will turn out that way especially that we have potential markets. The Japanese and Europeans are willing to come over,” she said.
“Another thing is, Europeans and Americans need travel insurance when they go to other countries, and they cannot get one if they go to a country that’s under martial law,” Tecson added.
As of May this year, Tecson said they already hit one-third of its target tourist arrivals, domestic and foreign combined.
“We’ve already hit 1 million which is very, very good for us but we are hoping that the trend will continue to be able to hit the target of 3 million this year. But then again, our problem is still how to get data from self-styled accommodation,” Tecson said.
Most of the foreign tourists are “the Americans and the second are the Chinese then followed by the Koreans and the Japanese,” she said.
On the issue of the Airbnb-type accommodations, Tecson said they are still looking for ways to legitimize and gather data from the said businesses.
“We found out that 80% of those who buy condominium units are investing to self-styled accommodation so we are hoping to look for a way to make these businesses legit,” Tecson said.(davaotoday.com)
