Davao City to establish cultural, tourism hub

Source: MindaNews

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 April) -- An official from the City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) said that the prize money of P15 million worth of grants, which was awarded to the city as the second place winner in the recent Tourism Champions Challenge (TCC), will be utilized to establish a cultural and tourism hub within Magsaysay Park here.

The project entitled "Panunod: A Way of Life, Inherited Preservation of the Unwavering Legacy of Cultural and Sustainable Tourism of the Davao City," intended to sell and promote various arts and products mainly from its 11 ethnolinguistic tribes, won on Monday in a contest initiated by the Department of Tourism (DOT).

The P15-million prize money, including an additional P5 million grant from President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., will also be spent on training the indigenous people (IP) on tourism.

Davao City's 11 ethnolinguistic tribes are the Ata, Maguindanaon, Matigsalug, Bagobo Klata, Maranao, Obo Manuvu, Bagobo-Tagabawa, Tausug, Sama, Iranun, and Kagan.

"The project aims to revitalize the iconic Magsaysay Park," said Warren Quiñones, CTOO planning section head, in a press conference Thursday morning. In the park, he added, is "the living museum in the city, the Kadayawan Village," which is one of the priorities for tourism development.

The Kadayawan Village hosts 11 tribal houses, one for each tribe.

Quiñones said they are now preparing the proposed structural design, perspective, maintenance and operation plan, among others, for the planned hub in Magsaysay Park.

The DOT allocated P180 million for the TCC, a project developed in partnership with the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), the Department's infrastructure division, with more than 100 local government unit-finalists.

The five winners in Mindanao are Isabela City in Basilan, first place, with grants worth P20 million; the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte got the third place; followed by Tagum City and San Agustin, Surigao del Sur. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)