In a significant move to hone young tourism trailblazers, the Davao City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) launched the first Tourism Skills Olympics on November 10, 2025.
During the event tourism students from 10 different tourism schools in the city faced each other in four categories: tour guiding, tour circuit development, tourism video creation, and tourism brochure creation.
“This is a competition where tourism schools and tourism students can hone their skills for the excellence of tourism service in Davao City and the entire region,” Gracie Plata, CTOO’s Tourism Operations Specialist, told the City Information Office.
The first of its kind in Davao City and the entire region, the event seeks to train students in tourism operations, development, and promotion.
“The main objective is to train our tourism students, give them a platform for practical application para ma-hone nila ilahang skills in tourism and hospitality industry (Our main objective is to train our tourism students by giving them a platform for practical application and further hone their skills in the tourism and hospitality industry),” Plata said.
“We start them young. We will give them a chance to showcase their skills and the things they have learned in school,” she added.
Princess Ayag, a tourism student from the AMYA Polytechnic College, Inc., expressed her gratitude to the city government and the CTOO for mounting an event like the Tourism Skills Olympics that help open opportunities to students to grow in their own fields.
“Ginafoster ko ani na event, mao na’ng naga aim pud ko nga muattend og mga ing’ani nga event kay dili lang kay kanang for exposure, ginanurture man pud gud ko as a student and for future career (Event such as this help foster my growth. This is why I always aim to participate in these kinds of events not only for exposure, but also because it nurtures me as a student as well as for my future career),” she said.
The CTOO wants to make the event an annual activity, as well as add more categories in the coming years.
Plata said that they plan to hold the Olympics in September 2026 in time for the celebration of the Tourism Month. CIO
