DAVAO CITY — Japanese investors and the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) are in talks for the opening of direct flights between Tokyo and Davao City.

Newly elected DCCCII President Arturo M. Milan, in a media forum Wednesday, said the investors from Japan are involved in the tourism sector.

“Nothing is definite yet as we are still in planning and discussing stage. We’re four discussing this but I am not at liberty to discuss this yet, (like identifying) who they are,” he said.

Mr. Milan said the next step is to bring in the Japanese Tourism Bureau as well as the Davao City Tourism Office into the discussions.

Mr. Milan said they are hoping to have the flights launched in time for the Kadayawan Festival in August.

“So we have to have a group that will do Indak-Indak (street dancing performance) in key cities in Japan to create awareness because we cannot just sit and wait until the foreign tourists will come. We need to promote it aggressively. That’s the plan,” he said.

The business leader said they are also looking into creating a “complete package” to attract Japanese tourists, which would include the promotion of other destinations in Mindanao such as Mati City in Davao Oriental and the Surigao provinces.

Mr. Milan said getting an airline to service the Tokyo-Davao route would be easy, but developing and sustaining a market for the flights would be the hard part.

In another development, Mr. Milan said the business chamber in Honolulu, Hawaii and the DCCCII are signing a sisterhood agreement to strengthen economic cooperation.

“They are communicating directly to the (Davao) city government and they are coming in February,” Mr. Milan said, adding, “I want to understand in what area they want cooperation. I suppose it would be tourism as Hawaii is a tourist destination. Probably also in food… or an exploration of what kind of agri products.”

“We are in a very exciting times and I hope we can take advantage of this,” he said. — Maya M. Padillo

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