Dumaguete is on a roll.
After having been named by Forbes Magazine in 2014 as the fifth best place in the world to retire, accommodations booking site Agoda.com has reported a «whopping 805% increase in bookings» in 2015 vs 2014” for Dumaguete City properties.
Agoda.com has been quoted in reports saying that in its latest data study, young independent Chinese travelers placed Dumaguete on top of the list of must-visit places.
Dumaguete was the only Philippine city in that list, which also included five cities in Japan, two in Thailand and one in Vietnam.
The other cities mentioned in that list, were, in order: Yufu, Japan; Koh Lanta, Thailand; Asahikawa, Japan; Nagoya, Japan; Beppu, Japan; Nha Trang, Vietnam; Nagano, Japan; Krabi, Thailand and Takayama, Japan.
Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria greeted the news with elation. “It’s a very big honor. I’m happy that all of a sudden, we learned that Dumaguete is now a preferred destination for independent Chinese tourists,” he told the MetroPost.
Sagarbarria said this speaks volumes about the way the tourism industry here is run. He said Dumaguete City’s sisterhood city agreements with Alameda County, USA and Youngdong Gun of Korea are now starting to bear fruit.
Last week, the officials of Alameda and Dumaguete held a Skype conference, where they launched the first-ever project under their partnership called The Alameda-Dumaguete InstaScram Mobile App Development Contest, or simply InstaScram Contest.
Sagarbarria also said that because of Dumaguete’s tie up with Alameda, a big delegation of the Filipino Medical Association of Alameda will be coming to do a free medical mission by January next year.
The City of Yeoungdong Gun, South Korea, also gave 100 computers to Dumaguete City. (AP)
