Photo courtesy of Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP)
DAVAO CITY (PIA) — The Department of Tourism (DOT) XI is gearing up to develop possible additional routes connecting the Davao region to other parts of the world to meet the demands of “certain international markets that prefer direct flights.”
Through the Air Connectivity Program, DOT-XI regional director Tanya Rabat-Tan said they are currently coordinating with various national government agencies, local government units, and private stakeholders “to build more concrete data to pitch to interested airlines.”
“The Department of Tourism, in collaboration with the other key agencies and even the private sector and the LGUs, is really working tirelessly to connect us to more routes,” Rabat-Tan said during the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas on July 9.
She said several industry players have already expressed interest in serving possible direct flights from Davao, although so much still needs to be done to develop new routes.
“Maraming naga-take on ng interest pero nandoon pa sa talks na level (many are taking on interest but it is still at the talk level),” she added without specifying yet the interested industry players and the possible routes.
Rabat-Tan also said part of their program is strengthening and improving the existing routes in the Davao region.
She added that there are currently three routes that offer direct flights between Davao and important destinations, namely Davao-Doha, Qatar, by Qatar Airways; Davao-Singapore by Scoot Air; and Davao-Quanzhou, China, by Xiamen Air.
She said Qatar Airways currently has three trips per week, up from initially having only one trip per week since the establishment of the route, while Scoot Air offers daily flights from Davao to Singapore.
To enhance the Davao-Singapore route, Rabat-Tan said that during their business mission in Singapore, they met with travel agents to invite more players to service the said route.
“[Although] we have daily flights with Scoot, we do want more players to come in to service the Davao-Singapore na route [because] we really want to entice more to build on the Singapore market,” she said.
For instance, she said they have already hosted FAM (familiarization) trips with several agents and connected them to local travel agents.
Singapore is among the top 10 foreign markets in the Davao region, along with the United States of America (USA), China, Japan, Korea, Australia, India, Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), and Malaysia, Rabat-Tan said.
Rabat-Tan reported an increasing number of tourist arrivals in the region since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, she said the number of tourist arrivals would be nearly 3.2 million.
For the first quarter of 2024, it reached 749,647—a slight increase from the first quarter of 2023 with 742,329.
Rabat-Tan expressed optimism that this development will continue and that the number of tourist arrivals in the coming periods will surpass the figures during the pre-pandemic period. (ASO/PIA XI)
