The recently concluded 33rd Kadayawan Festival was commended as “very successful” and the expenses were “worth it,” according to festival director Renato “Gatchi” Gatchalian.
Gatchalian said they were able to generate P35.5 million — P22.5 million in cash and P13 million in kind including airfare and accommodation of judges and other guests – from the private sector for the festivity.
It was higher than the P27 million they initially targeted.
The event had an initial budget of around P44 million, with the city allocating P12 million for the events and private partners taking care of the rest of the amount.
Gatchalian said the collaborative effort of the local government and the private sector really contributed a lot to the success of the event.
He also extended gratitude to the festival partners that sponsored the many events aligned with the festivities.
“We got a lot of support. If you have noticed, during the events, there were really so many Davaoeños who enjoyed and partied,” Gatchalian said.
Although they are still in the process of finalizing figures, Gatchalian said they could already concur that more tourists and locals joined this year’s festivity per initial assessment.
Gatchalian said hotels were fully booked.
He said that in the next year, more hotels are expected to open, hence, they are confident that more tourists will be accommodated.
Gatchalian thanked the people behind the dissemination of information of the Kadayawan celebration as it really contributed a lot to the marketing of the event.
“I guess, it was successful because we were able to communicate it outside Davao because we had an early marketing campaign, hence, we gathered lots of visitors,” said Gatchalian.
He said the opener, Pag-abli sa Kadayawan, was good because it brought more visitors to the city.
A “Pasasalamat” is expected by the end of this month where official results and other statistics will be revealed by the festival executive committee.
