Davao hotel occupancy dips amid Mindanao martial law declaration
THE declaration of martial law in Mindanao has led to a steep drop in hotel occupancy rates in Davao City, the leader of the city’s business chamber said, though he noted that there have been signs of recovery ahead of a major street festival this month.
Ronald C. Go, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc., said hotel occupancy rates in the city plummeted to 30-40% following the outbreak of fighting in Marawi in late May, dampening the tourism sector.
“There’s that tendency for foreign governments to look at martial law and say there’s no grey area... When they hear that, alarm bells start to ring,” Mr. Go told reporters on the sidelines of the Philippine Development Forum held at the EDSA Shangri-La in Mandaluyong.
During the first semester, Mr. Go said occupancy rates were hovering at 80- 90%, after former Davao mayor, now President, Rodrigo R. Duterte catapulted to power, raising lending interest in the southern metropolis.
“There’s really so much interest especially because our former mayor is now President. There were a lot of business delegations coming in. It really got Davao busy... Initially with martial law, that slowed down,” Mr. Go added.
Mr. Go said other tourism-related companies in Davao also hit headwinds following Mr. Duterte’s decision to place the entire Mindanao region under military rule on May 23 due to terror threats from the Maute group occupying Marawi City.
He noted that tourism plays a big role in Davao’s economy alongside the services and business process outsourcing sector, as well as agriculture.
However, Mr. Go said local firms are seeing inbound tourism bouncing back ahead of the Kadayawan festival which kicks off next week.
“Now, we are happily surprised because we’re running out of hotel rooms because of this event. It’s something very encouraging for us — it goes to show that we slowly gotten news out and slowly starting to see them come back,” the Davao-based businessman said.
“What we try to do is to spread the word especially through social media that martial law is different from what they perceive.”
As of Wednesday night, Malacañang said 548 Maute members have been killed while the government lost 128 troops and 45 civilians from the conflict in Marawi, which is now on its third month. Congress has extended martial law in Mindanao to Dec. 31 to allow government troops to continue with its offensive. —