Ang Dabawenyo

Tonight I was invited to the Christmas party of two long-standing tourism associations in Davao City: the Davao Travel Agents Association and the Davao Association of Tour Operators. DTAA and DATO did a joint year-end celebration at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao, and inducted their individual sets of officers for the following year.

I’d like to congratulate my good friend, Global Wings Davao’s Alex Divinagracia, who has been elected president of DTAA for 2008. Alex is the quintessential travel agent: well-traveled, street-smart, and possessed of a one-of-a-kind sense of humor. He has been in the travel industry for many, many fruitful years, and is considered as one of the pillars of Davao tourism.

I used to be in the tourism industry myself, having been born into a family of hoteliers. So at the Christmas party tonight, I felt a twinge of regret for abandoning tourism all those years ago. But then again, when I was still part of the industry in the 1990s, I had the time of my life because it was Davao’s heyday.

It was the time when Davao was considered a prime convention and incentive-travel destination. As such, I was able to organize themed tour packages for big companies, and it was a lot of fun! Welcoming visitors and throwing parties for them (at their expense) was an exhilarating experience for me.

But then I discovered the Internet — in 1996 when Davao was finally connected — and my interest in tourism work waned. It did not escape me, however, that the Internet could help promote Davao tourism. And so I was the first who published an online magazine (back then they were called “e-zines”) dedicated to promoting Davao City. That was the erstwhile Davao Travel NetGuide. It is indeed very ill-fated that I was not able to maintain ownership of the domain name, davao.net — somebody’s squatted on the domain….

Nevertheless, I’m still indirectly involved in tourism. By promoting the city via the World Wide Web, my travel agent friends still graciously consider me one of them.

Kudos to DTAA and DATO! Here’s to more years of productive and fun-filled activities!

Traveling to Papua New Guinea by any chance? Read this poignant story about an OFW Christmas.