Davao del Norte Comes up With New Tourist Greeting

Everyone in Davao del Norte is encouraged to greet each other with “DavNor Morning” as part of a tourism campaign designed to promote the local tourist spots in the province.

In a recent convocation, Provincial Tourism Officer Noel Daquioag roused the crowd of provincial government employees to his “DavNor Morning” greetings expected to become a byword of a welcoming visitor.

Such a greeting is tied to the vision of making Davao del Norte a premiere tourist destination, bannering the tagline “i-KASA Mo, Kilalanin Ang Sariling Atin.”

“This speaks of our advocacy to know the various tourism spots of our locality, patronize them and be able to tell the rest of the country and the world that indeed, it’s more fun in Davao del Norte and it’s more fun in the Philippines,” Daquioag said.

The advocacy is in line with the thrust of the Department of Tourism to “make the Philippines a must experience destination, capitalizing on every Filipino who is always ready to make a tourist’s experience more fun in the country,” DOT Regional Director Art Boncato said in his address during the same event.

Based on DOT’s clustering strategy of tourist sites, Davao del Norte, with the Island Garden City of Samal and Talicud Island as its frontline, is put together with Davao City as the international gateway of the Davao Region.

Davao del Norte and Davao City, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental and Compostela are bonded together under the Davao Gulf and Tourism Coast Center among the 19 other Philippine tourism clusters with a total of 78 tourism development areas.

To take advantage of such tourism positioning, the provincial government of Davao del Norte, through its Provincial Tourism Office, has identified and developed new tourist sites as well as “enhance existing ones.”

Citing such a thrust as part of the Ugmad Komunidad (UK) program of Governor Rodolfo del Rosario, Daquioag said, Talicud Island had been given priority, enhancing the tourism potential of the four barangays on the island.

Daquioag specifically cited the eco-tourism potential of Dadatan Cave of Barangay Dadatan in Talicud Island.

At Davao del Norte mainland, Kasilak Falls in the municipality of New Corella is a newly-discovered eco-tourism site.

Among other sites eyed to be placed under tourism development priority include Madgao River in the municipality of Asuncion; Kabyawan Cave, San Isidro; Okbot Cave, Kapalong; the mangrove field at the Mariculture Park in Panabo City; the Datu Bago memorial place in Tagum City; and the Ising Shrine in the municipality of Carmen.

Part of the tourism development plan of Davao del Norte is to take local and foreign tourists to appreciate and learn from the Gawad Saka award-winning fishponds in the municipality of Braulio E. Dujali and to showcase the Ecology Park of the municipality of Sto. Tomas, which championed in solid waste management program.

The Provincial Tourism Office also sees the need “to sustain the rich culture of the indigenous peoples in the municipality of Talaingod,” while improving and redesigning local festivals to achieve maximum attraction and satisfaction for tourists.

Realizing that the grand tourism plan of the province would come short of realization without the support of all stakeholders, Daquioag encouraged public-private partnership to come into play. (RGA/Jeanevive D. Abangan-PIA11)