Flights from Korea bring more tourists to Boracay

PET-FRIENDLY On occasion, pets join their owners along Boracay’s white sand beach. Since travel restrictions have been eased last year, the resort island in Malay, Aklan, has been seeing a steady increase in visitors, most of them local tourists. —JACK JARILLA

ILOILO CITY—Tourist arrivals in Boracay continued to increase this month especially with the resumption of international direct flights catering to leisure travelers bound for the resort island in Malay, Aklan.

Records from the Malay municipal tourism office showed that 97,766 tourists arrived on the island from June 1 to June 15, almost half of the 201,368 arrivals in May.Domestic tourists still accounted for 95.39 percent of visitors for the first half of the month. Foreign tourists reached 2,439 while overseas Filipinos accounted for 2,060.

Direct chartered flights between Incheon, South Korea, and Kalibo International Airport resumed on June 17 and June 22. South Korea is among Boracay’s top tourism markets.

In anticipation of the influx of visitors now that travel and health restrictions have eased, former Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu has called for an immediate study on the island’s carrying capacity to help local governments manage tourist arrivals.

In his speech during the culminating activity of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) on June 16, Cimatu, former BIATF chair, said the carrying capacity, pegged at 19,215 tourists at any given time, was set before the rehabilitation of the island in 2018. The island was closed to tourists for six months from April 26 to Oct. 25 in 2018 to undergo major rehabilitation.

WETLAND REHAB This photo taken in April shows the fenced-off Wetland No. 4 on Boracay Island, which has been undergoing rehabilitation. The area has been opened recently. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Reconsideration

Cimatu said the carrying capacity was pegged based on a study of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources with the University of the Philippines taking into consideration Boracay’s swimming area, available hotels and services, and the island’s population.

He said the carrying capacity did not consider Bolabog beach as a swimming area but it has since been rehabilitated. Bolabog is at the eastern side of the island parallel to the 4-kilometer white beach where most hotels and resorts are concentrated.

The Aklan provincial government earlier announced that the entry of tourists would be limited when tourist arrivals reached the island’s carrying capacity.

Local government officials and business owners have appealed to the national government to reconsider the carrying capacity that would allow more tourists on the island. They said the rehabilitation projects and other interventions implemented in the past four years should be considered in determining the carrying capacity.