Davao City tourist arrivals rise 11 percent to 1.63 million in first nine months of 2026

Davao City recorded 1,632,597 tourist arrivals from January to September 2026, an increase of 161,901, or about 11 percent, over the same period last year, according to the City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO), SunStar reported.

CTOO officer-in-charge Willenito Tormis Jr. reported the figures to the City Council during its regular session on Tuesday, Oct. 27, describing them as the city's highest since 2019. He also presented two citations the city received from the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (Atop) Pearl Awards, and credited the growth to the city's efforts to deliver its four festivals.

Domestic travellers accounted for the bulk of arrivals at 1,541,884, up 10.7 percent. Foreign visitors grew 14.5 percent to 71,188, while overseas Filipinos rose 27.7 percent to 19,525. August, the month of the Kadayawan Festival, was the busiest with 226,785 visitors. February showed the fastest growth at 22.06 percent, and May the slowest at 3.38 percent.

Growth eased slightly in the third quarter, as first-half arrivals had passed one million with an 11.7 percent increase, SunStar Davao earlier reported. The CTOO is aiming for 2.5 million arrivals for 2026, up from about 2 million last year, but Tormis said the office currently projects between 2.2 million and 2.4 million.

Asked how tourists are counted, Tormis said the data come from monthly reports that hotels and inns must submit under the city's tourism code. The city has about 7,100 hotel rooms. Airport figures are not used because they cannot separate visitors from travelling Dabawenyos, and most Airbnb guests are not counted since only CTOO-accredited units report. Tormis said hotels have complained that undeclared condominium rentals undercut them without paying taxes, and that the CTOO is working with Councilor Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz on tourism code revisions requiring Airbnbs to report.

Second District Councilor Diosdado Angelo Junior Mahipus proposed arrival cards collected at checkpoints, a tourism app, monitoring of long hotel stays with the security cluster, and free airport shuttles for tourists. Tormis said the city has no dedicated app yet but is building a tourism website with a traveller database.

Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, who chairs the finance and appropriations committee, asked for a tourism development plan for the Marilog and Paquibato districts. Tormis said a community-based tourism ordinance is still on second reading. Dayanghirang noted the tourism budget is much larger than before and said the council expects matching results.