MAKING AN IMPACT Strengthening Davao Del Norte through Partnership (Philippines) Tourism growth in the Island Garden City of Samal Davao del Norte is a Province in the Philippines located in the north central part of Davao Region. It is primarily an agricultural province with the main crops being rice, maize, banana, coconut, abaca, ramie, and coffee. The Province is the leading producer of bananas in the Philippines, with large multinational (Dole and Del Monte) as well as local corporations operating industrial plantations in the area. The Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS) is a municipality within the province of Davao del Norte in Davao Region. It is a group of islands made up of a main island and seven isle, composed of three districts: Babak, Samal, and Kaputian. Largest among the islets is Talikud Island, which is the focal area for tourism development. IGaCoS has almost 120 kilometers of continuous coastline.
It is a pristine tourism destination with increasing numbers of tourists every year; the annual tourism growth rate from 2006 to 2014 was 29.13%. In light of the recent tourism growth, the city government established an investment and tourism office with a specific mandate to focus on investment and tourism development. Tourism councils were also revived at the provincial and city level. In its 2011-2016 Philippines National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), the Federal Department of Tourism (DOT) set out a number of tourism development areas (TDAs) across the country. TDAs are areas that have been identified as having development potential and where much of the DOT’s resources will be focused. The NTDP identified Davao City-Island Garden City as a priority TDA.
Need for tourism policies and infrastructure Despite the tourism growth in IGaCoS, the local government has been faced with the challenge of sustaining tourism development in the area, and ensuring that vital infrastructure and regulations are in place ahead of the surge in visitor arrivals. Davao del Norte’s LGSP-LED Project aimed to establish IGaCoS, and Talikud Island in particular, as a major tourism destination with improved quality of services, tourist facilities and enterprises and enhanced destination marketing capabilities. It also sought to strengthen the capacity of IGaCoS stakeholders to achieve sustainable tourism development.
MAKING AN IMPACT STRENGTHENING DAVAO DEL NORTE THROUGH PARTNERSHIP
The project included a number of activities, such as developing a Tourism Circuit Plan and a Workforce Development Plan, training for tourism workers and entrepreneurs, destination marketing, and investment promotion. Several policies or processes were also put in place to support local and provincial governments in enabling LED.
Partnerships and collaboration underlie project’s success There was a strong focus on ‘convergence’ throughout the project. Convergence is an approach to coordinating economic programs, policies, and plans across multiple stakeholders to eliminate redundancy, ensure compatibility, and enhance efficiency. The project was directly supported by the various regional offices of national government agencies through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Provincial Government, and the Region XI Office DILG. The DILG Regional Office acted as the coordinating body and as the Project Management Team (PMT). The Project Implementation Team (PIT) had two members from the local government (Province and City) and two members representing the Private Sector. The PIT and PMT ensured that all the national government agency partners were directly involved in the planning and implementation the project activities. Technical working groups (TWG) were also formed to prepare more specific work plans and integrated activity designs for each of the project’s subcomponents. The members of the PIT were distributed to these working groups so that each working group was headed by one PIT member from the LGU and another from the private sector.
National government agency partners involved themselves in the working groups relevant to their own mandates, and took a leadership role when the work involved their Department’s core mission and expertise. For example, the Department of Trade and Industry was the lead NGA in the planning and implementation of the local project work related to investment promotion. Destination Marketing and Product Development was also a collaborative effort between the private sectors of Samal and Davao. Davao draws more tourists for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) while Samal offers leisure destination such as beach holidays. Because of this, the local project through the Department of Tourism endeavored to bridge the 2 private sectors and work jointly on
MAKING AN IMPACT STRENGTHENING DAVAO DEL NORTE THROUGH PARTNERSHIP
destination marketing and product development. This resulted in the development of tour itineraries for Davao and Samal which is now jointly promoted through major campaigns such as the Visit Davao Fun Sale (VDFS).
A key lesson from the local project in Davao del Norte was the importance and value of convergence. Collaboration and partnerships continued throughout the project and were formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This made it easy to identify support or assistance in the project implementation because everybody knew what their roles were in the local project.
SUMMARY Program Name: Sustainable Tourism Development and Business Enablement in the Island Garden City of Samar (IGCOS) Location: Davao Del Norte Date: 2014-2016 Population: 945,764
Area: 342,697 ha
Key Program Components
• • • • • • •
Tourism Circuit Plan developed and new tourism packages/products developed Workforce Development Plan developed and skills training provided for Tourism workers and entrepreneurs Destination marketing program developed and implemented Investment promotion plan developed and priority projects identified Business Processing and Licencing System digitized Developed Local Investment and Incentives Code an Guidelines Developed Open Beach access policy
Impacts:
Total investments to date are estimated at only PHP221.7 million as of March 31, 2016. This includes PHP185.7 million from private investors and PHP36 million investment for public infrastructure specifically related to the improvement of the ports in Samal Island and Talikud Island. For 2015, there were a total of 266,883 total arrivals to IGaCos, of whom 251,014 were domestic tourists, while 15,869 were foreigners. Private sector investments in IGaCoS have been mostly related to the development of small resorts and tourism transport facilities, which have reportedly resulted in the creation of 269 new jobs. The project expects to continue to raise the employment gains.