Davao tourism sees 'huge drop' in revenue amid COVID-19 Crisis

As the positive cases of COVID-19 continue to rise, more and more businesses have come to a close making the Philippines’ economy have been suffering immensely.

Not an exception to the suffrage is Davao City. According to Davao City Tourism Office head Generose Tecson, the local government is anticipating for their tourism to suffer major revenue losses.

“But I will really say that it’s going to be a huge drop. It’s worldwide. That’s what’s happening right now,” Tecson said during her live interview over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR) 87.5 on Saturday, May 2.

She added that they are yet to gauge the estimated losses their tourism has suffered due to the pandemic. Because their local tourism has been anticipating promising arrivals in the past few years, they have opened several international and domestic airlines routes. However, since businesses worldwide are suffering, they have been greatly at loss.

Davao City posted 2.57 million tourist arrivals in 2019 from 2.39 million from 2018. However, because of this pandemic, they are yet to meet with their tourism leaders to draft a post COVID-19 recovery plan.

Mayor Sara Duterte, concurrent chair of Davao Region COVID-19 Task Force, banned land, sea, and air travels last March 19, resulting in the suspension of 21 domestic flights and four international flights.

Here are the suspended international flights: