Cruise ships lined up for Boracay reopening
UP TO eight international cruise ships have already scheduled stops in Boracay island, which is expected to reopen in late October after a six-month closure to address environmental problems. Department of Tourism-Western Visayas (DoT-6) Regional Director Helen J. Catalbas said the cruise ships are lined up from Oct 26 until 2019. “Among them are Royal Caribbean Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and Star Cruises. Each has a capacity of 1,500 to 4,500 passengers, including crews,” she said. Ms. Catalbas said the DoT has already cleared with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) concerns on potential damage to underwater reefs. She said the DENR explained that corals thrive in shallow waters, while cruise ships drop anchor in deeper parts of the sea. “So it is not likely that the anchorage of cruise ships for a few hours could cause damage to corals,” she said. Before Boracay’s closure in April, 16 out of the 18 scheduled cruise ships were able to visit the island. Meanwhile, Ms. Catalbas said they are now reviewing the implementation of a reservation system to “control” the number of tourists visiting the island. “Because if we do not implement an advance reservation, there might be too much people coming in and we do not have enough rooms considering that we are still working on the compliance of many other hotels and resorts in the island,” she said. The DENR is expected to release this month its study and recommendations on Boracay’s carrying capacity for tourists. —