A week prior the month-long celebration of Kadayawan Festival, major hotels in the city are already fully booked for the whole month of August, the city tourism chief said.
During media forum at Habi & Kape, City Tourism and Operations Office (CTOO) chief Regina Rosa Tecson said reservations of major hotels are all filled to capacity.
“I can say na maganda ang booking natin for Kadayawan,” Tecson added.
Benjamin Banzon, general manager of Royal Mandaya Hotel, said the festival is one of the major highlights for most hotels in the city throughout the year.
“Normally, the stay of our guests averages at two nights and three days,” Banzon said. “When it comes to Kadayawan, it becomes four nights and five day.”
According to Banzon, since mid-July, there’s already a massive influx of hotel inquiries and bookings at their hotel. “We are really enjoying a very good occupancy and a very good business. It is really a good indication that hotel industry are doing well,” he said.
The CTOO recorded about 1,250,000 tourist arrivals as of the first semester of 2019. It is almost half of the three million annual target. Tourist arrivals is expected to increase by more than 250,000 in August. Tecson said, for now, they only rely the data on determining tourist arrivals from the hotel occupancy.
The official opening of the Kadayawan Festival is set on Aug. 2 at Magsaysay Park with a mass at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
