Sustainable tourism

Tourists began trickling back to Boracay over the week- end and the soft reopening of the island for its main economic activity pushed through on Monday.

The full rehabilitation of the country’s most popular travel destination, however, will take many more months. Boracay will be reopened in phases, starting with its beachfront areas and then going into the less scenic interior where most of those who work on the island reside. Several hundred accommodation facilities have been given the green light to operate.

Even more challenging than the cleanup is ensuring that there will be no backsliding. Boracay must serve as a model for environmentally sustainable tourism. The weakness in regulation and governance that turned the island into what President Duterte described as a “cesspool” must be decisively addressed.

The unprecedented shutdown of the island should impart enough lessons to stakeholders in other travel destinations around the country. The problems that plagued Boracay are not unique to the island. The lack of sewerage systems, the construction of buildings too close to the water, poor garbage disposal and general overdevelopment are problems that bedevil most of the beach destinations across the archipelago. Developing clean and environmentally sustainable travel destinations must not be confined to exclusive, expensive private estates.

As Boracay reopens for business, the government must also restore the trust of tourists, reassuring them that the arbitrary, abrupt shutdown of the island will not be repeated in other Philippine travel destinations. Visiting a top destination can take several months of planning, reservations and sometimes advance payments. Work and school schedules are planned around such vacations.

The Philippines is vying for visitors in a region with a highly competitive tourism environment. Despite the top-quality attractions that the country has to offer, tourist arrivals in the Philippines are only a fraction of the figures in Southeast Asian neighbors Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, with Vietnam and Indonesia also ahead and Cambodia rapidly catching up. The rehabilitation of Boracay should lead to irreversible reforms in tourism policy that will boost Philippine competitiveness in the travel industry.