THE Davao City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) is gearing towards crafting the city’s tourism master plan for 2017, an official said.
City tourism officer Generose Tecson told reporters Thursday, December 1, at the sidelines of the Turismo Café launching at the Marco Polo Hotel-Davao that the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) has vowed to fund the master plan.
“During our roadshows in various government agencies including Tieza, upon our request, they positively agreed to fund Davao City’s tourism master plan and some of other projects,” she said.
Tecson said CTOO will submit a formal letter to Tieza to formalize the request.
“I cannot give to you now if how much they will fund but probably it is bigger than their fund assistance of P10-million for the tourism master plan for the development and restoration of village of Mintal in Davao City as Little Tokyo,” she said.
Tecson underscored that the city’s tourism master plan will lure more investors in the city. She also said during the crafting of the master plan, the private and public sector will be consulted.
Little Tokyo
For the development and restoration of Mintal as Little Tokyo, Tecson said, the master plan for the specific project is eyed to be completed by March of next year.
Tecson also said earlier that Berkman International, Inc., a professional consulting and project management firm won the bidding for the project.
As the winning bidder, the company will craft the master plan of restoring and developing the Little Tokyo in Mintal.
"Finally, for years Barangay Captain Abay Bargamento and the City Government have been pushing for this project, now we are officially starting it," she said.
Representatives from the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza), Berkman International, Mintal village, and the City Government met last October 10, for the first time to discuss the community-based cultural tourism project.
She added the winning bidder will visit Mintal village to conduct ocular inspections on the second week of November.
The "Little Tokyo" will feature a Japanese hospital, market, cemetery, and the monument of Ohta Kyozaburo, a businessman who established the first Japanese-owned abaca company in the Philippines.
Tecson said the move of developing and restoring Little Tokyo and making it part of the City's Tourism circuit is seen to increase the influx of tourists here as it features a unique cultural village bringing back the visitors to the time of pre-World War II (1919 to 1945) when Japanese settled in the city.
The Little Tokyo, Tecson said, was where the progress of Davao began.
According to the Department of Tourism-Davao data, Japanese tourists placed second among the top five foreign markets for the first quarter this year at 12,198 Japanese visitors.
Tecson said developing Mintal's potential as a tourism site is an investment worth banking on.
