Welcome to Dumaguete!
Dumaguete is the capital city and main port of Negros Oriental, the province that occupies the southeastern part of Negros Island, in the Philippines. It is sometimes called the "City of Gentle People". A laid-back university town with a charming seafront boulevard and a good selection of tourist-oriented services, Dumaguete is a good place to relax for anything from a few days to a few decades. There are many tourists and a large contingent of resident foreigners. According to the Philippine government, Dumaguete is the most popular destination in the country for retiring abroad.
Dumaguete is a major transport hub for reaching destinations anywhere on the large island of Negros which is split into two provinces, Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental. In particular, it often serves as an entry point for trips to diving on Apo Island or dolphin chasing and whale watching near Bais City. The small island province of Siquijor, with its many beaches and legends of sorcery, is also often reached via Dumaguete, it is visible from the downtown seafront.
The economy is quite diverse and is doing well, a 2009 survey showed Dumaguete with the lowest incidence of poverty of all cities in the Visayas and Mindanao. The city has been a center of education for over a century, and the transport, market, and administrative hub of its region for even longer. Tourism and hi-tech have become important, Dumaguete is among the top ten tourist destinations in the country and has quite a few call centers, business process outsourcing companies, and other IT-related enterprises.
Dumaguete, officially the City of Dumaguete (Cebuano: Dakbayan Sa Dumaguete), is a 3rd class component city and capital of the province of Negros Oriental, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 134,103 people. It is the capital and most populous city of the province of Negros Oriental.
Dumaguete is a university city, with four universities and a number of other colleges, attracting students of the province, as well as students from surrounding provinces and cities in Visayas and Mindanao. The city is best known for Silliman University, the first Protestant and American university in the country and in Asia. There are also 18 public elementary schools and 8 public high schools. The city's student population is estimated at 45,000. The power source of the city comes from the geothermal power plant in Palinpinon, Valencia. The city has redundant fiber optic lines and is a focal point for telecommunications. It is the landing point for fiber optic cables linking it to the whole Visayas, Manila (the capital of the nation), and cities south of Luzon, as well as to other cities north of Mindanao. Scholars have been pushing for the city's inclusion in the tentative list of the Philippines for future UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination.