BORACAY ISLAND REOPENS
Resort island to have fewer hotels, restaurants after 6-month clean-up
THE Philippines reopens its crown jewel resort island Boracay to holidaymakers tomorrow, after a six-month cleanup aimed at repairing the damage inflicted by years of unrestrained mass tourism.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the island shuttered in April for a major effort to fortify weak infrastructure and crack down on rampant overdevelopment that had left it, what he termed, a “cesspool”.
When the government open the doors, Boracay will have fewer hotels and restaurants, a cap on the number of visitors and antibeach boozing rules aimed at taming its party-hard reputation.
All of this is intended to protect the bruised beauty of the island’s turquoise waters and expanses of white sand beaches, which were being loved to death by two million tourists per year.
Tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said she hoped the new Boracay would be the start of a “culture of sustainable tourism” in the Philippines, adding that other tourist destinations would be next.
“It means taking account of the repercussions of our actions on current and future situations of the environment,” she said.
Romulo-Puyat said she sent a written “warning” to other top Philippine tourist draws, including El Nido and Panglao islands, while others, such as the whale-shark-feeding site of Oslob had cut its tourist arrivals by half.
Boracay, which major tourist magazines consistently rate as among the world’s best beaches, is a mere 1,000ha.
Yet, it was seeing up to 40,000 sun worshippers at peak times, who left behind US$1 billion (RM4.2 billion) a year, but also mountains of garbage, an overflowing sewer system and a carnival-like atmosphere.
Under the new rules, 19,200 tourists will be allowed on the island at any one time, with the government aiming to enforce that by controlling the number of available hotel rooms.