By Romeo Braceros Jr.

Photo: Davao Updates

The first Mindanao Travel Expo 2023, scheduled for January 27 to 29 at the SMX Convention Center in SM Lanang Premier, Davao City, is Mindanao's most extensive travel and tourism event and signals the region's readiness for the big time in 2023.

The expo will include booths and exhibitions from local government organizations, tour operators from across the nation, airline and transportation firms, hotels, and other tourism-related businesses, as well as regional offices of the Department of Tourism.

The Mindanao Travel Expo will also feature a wide range of activities, such as learning sessions, business-to-business and business-to-customer meetings, and travel exchanges to various tourism circuits throughout Mindanao.

Before his resignation as president in June 2022 through the Talk to the People, Rodrigo Duterte had a similar idea during the early months of the pandemic.

Davao Region had 1,048,245 arrivals in the first semester of 2022, which is 73.62% more than in the corresponding period in 2021. This is a powerful sign that tourism is indeed recovering.

"The Mindanao Travel Expo 2023 is our way of sustaining this momentum and keeping with our strategic direction to restart tourism by supporting our stakeholders and promoting Mindanao regions as safe and fun destinations," said DOT 11 Regional Director Tanya Rabat.

According to DOT Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco, despite having some of the most picturesque locations in the nation, Mindanao still has several problems that prevent it from developing to its full potential.

The DOT, according to Frasco, will "reach out to this region, to exert the services, the skills, and the experience of the Department's members to ensure that they receive the proper training, promotion, and marketability that they should have and will have going forward. “

The Davao Visitors Destination Hub, Inc., DOT Mindanao regional offices, DOT Office of Product and Market Development, and DOT Office of the Undersecretary for Tourism Regulation Coordination and Resource Generation are all partners in DOT 11's initiative, the Mindanao Travel Expo 2023.