Boracay not yet full, says DOT secretary

TOURISTS continue to arrive on Boracay Island to have their summer vacation. MARK ALVIC ESPLANA/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

ILOILO CITY—Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said Boracay Island had not yet reached its carrying capacity, amid renewed calls for a stop of further development activities and to limit tourist arrivals on the island.

“All this talk of overcrowding is exaggerated. I guess we are fortunate that Filipinos feel that if you’re within 10 feet of him, it’s a crowded beach,” Jimenez told the Inquirer.

Jimenez said Boracay had not exceeded its carrying capacity and is “not even near it” based on the overall development plan for the island.

“What we do have (are) some zoning issues we have to sort out but not a danger of exceeding capacity,” he said.

He pointed out that development activities were “not in the right places at all times.” He said the Department of Tourism (DOT) would look into the issues and concerns being raised by the residents and tourists.

Some residents, tourists and environmental groups have renewed calls for a stop to further development activities on the island amid reports of deteriorating quality of coastal water and encroachment of construction on the island’s remaining forests especially at Puka Shell Beach at the northern tip of the 1,032-hectare island.

Several groups have called for an indefinite moratorium on development activities and to limit tourists until the island’s damaged natural resources can recover.

Tourism and local officials are targeting tourist arrivals to reach 1.5 million this year.

Last year, tourist arrivals grew by 7.97 percent (108,753) from 1,363,599 in 2013 to 1,472,352, according to the DOT.

Tourism revenues also reached a new record high of P40,705,013,547, or 62.38 percent higher than the P25,067,585,857 recorded in 2013.

As in previous years, more domestic tourists went to the island reaching 745,266 while foreign tourists numbered 682,832. About 44,254 overseas-based Filipinos also went to the island.

In the study “Tourism Carrying Capacity of Boracay Island” conducted in 2008, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said Boracay had a capacity of 10,116.27 swimmers, 16,703.40 sunbathers/ users and 14,674 diners along coconut groves. At that time Boracay had an average of 9,361 visitors per day.

DENR officials had warned then that the island’s carrying capacity could be reached within three years if the problems of environmental degradation and implementation of the island’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) would not be addressed.

The CLUP drafted by the DOT sought to address the uneven development of the island which is mainly concentrated in Barangay (village) Balabag and spread the development to the two other villages of Yapak and Manoc-Manoc.

The CLUP also aims to address key land use problems including uncontrolled urbanization, uneven distribution of development, settlement use and pattern, movement and circulation system on the island, land ownership and access and encroachment on critical areas.

Boracay has three of Malay town’s 17 barangays but accounts for 28,369 of the 45,811 (61 percent) residents of the municipality.