Go Mindanao Tourism Expo

Davao City will once again host the 2nd Go Mindanao! Travel & Tour Expo slated on August 17 and 18

at the city’s Central Bank Convention Hall.

The best of Mindanao’s tourism products and services will be on exhibit under one roof

at the expo. They include hotels such as the Mercure Grand Hotel, Marco Polo Davao,

Royal Mandaya Hotel, Grand Men Seng Hotel, Waterfront Insular Hotel and resorts like

the Pearl Farm Beach Resort and the Samal Beach Park to mention some. Various

municipal and regional tourism councils from all over Mindanao are also poised to join

the expo to promote tourism in their provinces and cities, according to Art Boncato,

Jr., president of Davao Tourism Association (DATA), the lead organizer of the event.

The expo’s symposium portion will have interesting presentations from the Department

of Tourism (DOT), the Davao City government, the Anflo Group of Companies and the

Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) in cooperation with USAID.

As part of its sponsorship, GEM-USAID will pay for the exhibit registration fees of eight

of its GEM-assisted tourism ventures from various areas in Mindanao.

Other sponsors of the travel expo include Coca-Cola, Waterfront Insular Hotel,

Mercure, Cebu Pacific, Danni Radio, Marco Polo Davao, Royal Mandaya Hotel, SunStar

Davao, Hotel Galleria, Regency Inn and Villa Margarita.

To promote the event, the organizers have set its website with address at

www.davao.org.ph, sponsored by KAII and Adcom Virtual.

DATA initiated the Go Mindanao expo last year in cooperation with other

tourism-related associations in Mindanao to promote the island’s tourism industry. This

year’s edition will have Senator Loren LegardaLeviste, chair of the Senate Committee

on Tourism, as its keynote speaker during the opening ceremonies. The first Go

Mindanao travel expo last year had Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz-Araneta as guest

speaker.

“DATA believes that the Go Mindanao travel expo will be a perfect venue to announce

that all is well in Mindanao and at the same time showcase what have remained

largely the Philippines undiscovered assets—Mindanao’s unmatched natural resources,

unique and exotic attractions and tourist amenities comparable to those in Metro

Manila, Cebu and other areas in the country,” said the DATA president.

With the theme, “Back to Nature,” the Mindanao tourism industry expects to attract

more travel and tour agencies, airlines, tourism consultants, convention organizers,

tourism developers, Mindanao’s theme parks and promoters of adventure tours to set

up exhibit booths. Prospective exhibitors can contact Conventions & Events

Organizers at (82) 222-1033, 222-1185; Fax, (82) 221-7791or 222-5801 for booth

rental.

Now, in light of the fall of Camp Abubakar and the thrashing of the MILF (hopefully for

good), local government officials in Mindanao should get their tourism offices to join

the expo with exhibits to showcase their own tourist attractions. These local

government officials can learn from this travelmart how tourism promotion is done.

And by being present at this travel trade event in Davao, they can show unity, an

important ingredient in conveying the important message that indeed all is well now in

Mindanao.

It might even be an excellent idea for DATA to display a large map of Mindanao

showing the distance of the areas that are still questionable – especially the far flung

tiny island groups of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi Tawi, where the Abu Sayyaf bandits are

still in hiding with their hostages.

A travelmart, like the Go Mindanao expo, is the real spin nowadays in promoting

specific travel and tourism products and services. Local government officials need to

experience tourism promotion in a travelmart setting to know what the other

destinations in the country are doing to promote themselves. It is often the case that

some LGU officials just open their mouths without thinking when criticizing the DOT,

sounding silly and ignorant about tourism. Governors and mayors, to remain electable,

also need to be sharp on tourism and be knowledgeable in using tourism in creating

jobs in their communities.

This brings me to the question why some LGU officials are still relying on the DOT to

promote their areas. It seems that some are not even aware that many of the DOT’s

licensing functions and power have been devolved or transferred to the local

governments. With this devolution of DOT functions to license tourism establishments,

the LGUs now have the supervisory responsibility over tourism establishments in their

communities. And with the licensing and supervisory power also goes the responsibility

of promoting tourism in their areas. Are they aware of this and if they are what have

they done to promote tourism in their communities?