BusinessWeek M I N DA N A O CREDIBLE
Volume VIII, No. 88 As of 5:30 pm Dec. 19, 2017 (tuesday)
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Waste-to-energy DAVAO City -- Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is now open to having a Waste-To-Energy (WTE) Plant in the city after getting an assurance that the local government will not be allocating funds for its construction. During a press conference at the launch of the Chocolate Tours Overload at the SMX Davao on December 5, Duterte-Carpio said a delegation from Davao City has discussed the project with their counterparts from Kitakyushu City, Japan. Davao City has inked a “green sister city agreement” with Kitakyushu City located in Fukuoka prefecture. The agreement bound the two cities to cooperate in green city initiatives such as resource cycling, capacity building and other green endeavors. The mayor said the project will continue without the financial participation of the city government as the funds will come from the private sector and the Japanese government.
Choco capital DAVAO City – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is bullish on Davao Region’s cacao and chocolate industry as it moves faster to become the Philippine chocolate capital. The city mayor said Davao Region could now supply 80 percent of the country’s total cacao production and contributing to the region’s rapid economic growth since the discovery of Davao’s potential to grow worldclass cacao and produce chocolate products. “Davao Region is now moving towards the prestigious name as chocolate capital of the Philippines,” Duterte-Carpio said.
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Cagayan de Oro Lapasan Highway, Cagayan de Oro City
Theme park seen to lure foreign tourists www.businessweekmindanao.com
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By MARK FRANCISCO, Staff Writer
EVEN Seas Waterpark, the largest of its kind in Mindanao, is setting its sight not only on domestic clients but foreign tourists as well.
Resort operations manager Roselle Machate said they had already seen bookings from Chinese and South Korean tourists as early as next year.
“The whole point of building this theme park is not just for domestic tourists; it’s really intended for the tourists/PAGE 11
TOURIST ATTRACTION. The newly-opened Seven Seas Waterpark in Opol, Misamis Oriental. The 7-hectare attraction is expected to lure local and foreign tourists since its grand launch on December 17. photo by gerry lee gorit
Davao City eyes 170K visitors this Christmas DAVAO City -- The number of tourist arrivals in Davao City could hit about 170,000 to celebrate Christmas or 10,000 more compared with last year. Even without firecrackers or display of pyrotechnics, the city has become a destination for domestic tourism because
of its month-long Pasko Fiesta. Davao City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) chief Generose Tecson said the city is targeting around 170,000 tourists who will be coming to the city to celebrate Christmas. visitors/PAGE 11
Halal industry expected to attract Muslim tourists By CARMELITO Q. FRANCISCO, Correspondent
D AVA O C i t y — T h e Department of Tourism (DoT) in the region has started its inventory of halalfriendly establishments with the goal of improving the marketability of the region to Muslim visitors. Last week in her visit to the Marco Polo Hotel, Zuhairah A. Abas-Diamla, chief tourism operation officer of the DoT regional office, said this is one way of looking at loopholes that need to be plugged so that promoting the region to Muslim tourists would be seamless. “We need to look at the
total picture of how halal has been practiced by our local tourism establishments,” Ms. Abas-Diamla said, pointing out that the inventory is the start of the long process necessary to ensure that everything about halal is put in place. Dottie Würgler-Cronin, Marco Polo Davao general manager, welcomed the initiative as her establishment is among those that have implemented key initiatives to welcome Muslim travelers. “We are one with the DoT in this initiative,” said Ms. Würgler-Cronin whose hotel attract/PAGE 11
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