- New tourism package introduced in this year’s Duaw Davao
A WALK around Chinatown, which will become a part of the city’s tourism circuits, will be piloted in this year’s Duaw Davao, which kicks off at Rizal Park on June 5.
Willenito Tormis, chief of the City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO), said the Chinatown walk will cover the entire stretch of Ramon Magsaysay Street, from Santa Ana to the Unity Arch, up to the Friendship Arch in front of Magsaysay Park.
“Hopefully, this Chinatown walk that we are doing now will also eventually become a circuit, as well as the art walk that we are doing,” Tormis said.
The Duaw Davao Walking Tour is scheduled on multiple dates: June 6, 13, and 27 for the Chinatown Walk.
The itinerary for the walking tour starts at Santa Ana Port, the jump-off point, to discuss the center of early trade, followed by the Unity Arch, the gateway to Chinatown.
Then the walking tour will go to Kianbee Trading, where the guide will discuss the textile industry, to be followed by the DCLA trip for a P100 shopping challenge.
The tour will also visit New Farmacia SuyHoo, a pharmacy selling Chinese herbs and medicines; next is Bohol Trading, for abaca and indigenous materials; then the RTW shopping, and food culture; followed by the NCCC Department Store, the old department store.
Participants will also drop by the Four Cafe, a coffee stop for coffee exporting; Davao Star Bakery, an old-timer bakery there for hopia and dice.
The tour will end at the Friendship Arch, followed by snacks at the Famous Davao restaurant or at Shanghai Restaurant.
“We haven’t called them circuits yet because right now, they are just walks that we are developing, and once we finalize the product, which is the circuit, that will be our way of selling it to different tour operators,” he stressed.
Tour guide operators in the city are invited to the walking tour for validation and to also be involved in the development of the circuit.
To note, CTOO, together with the Department of Tourism XI (DOT XI), introduced four new tourism circuits on March 6 in time for Araw ng Davao.
The circuits named “Abundant Harvest”, “Market Experience”, “Food Crawl”, and “Furusato Davao” with travel routes leading to the city’s agriculture, visitor experience at Bankerohan Public Market, homegrown establishments, and the shared connections with Japan before World War 2
Tormis said the circuits have performed well since their launch, citing the increased number of tourists availing “Abundant Harvest” and “Furusato Davao” tours, mostly students.
“Right now, we have many inquiries, and many have joined, and even Belviz and Gran Verde have informed us that their number of visitors is increasing because of our marketing from our new circuits,” he said.
For the Furusato tour, Tormis reported that different students, with some coming outside of the city, availed themselves of it.
Furusato Davao, a heritage tour to tell stories of the Japanese communities who came to Davao City.
