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), as reported by SunStar Davao.

CTOO officer-in-charge Willenito Tormis Jr. reported the figures to the City Council during its regular session on Tuesday, October 27, where he also presented the city's two citations from the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (Atop) Pearl Awards. He said the numbers are the city's highest since 2019 and credited the effort put into the four festivals the city stages.

Domestic tourists accounted for 1,541,884 arrivals, 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 at 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 risen 11.7 percent. The CTOO is aiming for 2.5 million arrivals by year-end, up from about 2 million in 2025, 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 residents, and most Airbnb guests are left out because only CTOO-accredited units report. "Right now we don't have super big access with the Airbnbs, only those who are accredited with our office," Tormis said. He added that hotels have complained that unregistered condominium rentals undercut them without paying taxes, and that the CTOO is working with Councilor Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz on tourism code revisions that would require 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. Tormis said the city has no tourism app yet but is building a website with a traveler database.

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