Cleaner, stricter and less-crowded Boracay opens to tourists

The Philippine island was once called ‘cesspool’

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Boatloads of tourists sailed yesterday to the Philippines’ Boracay island, which officials reopened to visitors after a six-month closure to clean waters the president had called a “cesspool” due to years of overcrowding, partying and neglect.

Officials on the island in central Aklan province have imposed new rules to regulate the influx of visitors and beach parties, decongest resorts and prevent sewage from being discharged directly into the turquoise waters. Only a portion of Boracay’s hotels and other businesses have reopened under the new rules, and a fraction of the more than 20,000 workers who lost their jobs have been rehired.

“Let us treat the island as our home. Keep it clean and pristine. Don’t drink alcohol or smoke in the beach, don’t litter,” Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said in a message to incoming tourists.

‘Soft opening’

Cabinet officials and local celebrities attended a ceremony to mark Boracay’s “soft opening” on a white-sand beach near a port where ferries unloaded tourists.

German tourist Lora Hoerhammer, among the first foreign visitors to set foot on the spruced-up island, backed the closure. “We said wow, that is a good thing to close the whole environment so that nature can rest for a second and people can clean up everywhere,” the 27-year-old German said.

Visitors will be kept to about 6,000 daily and will be asked to sign an oath to follow the new rules, including proper waste disposal and a ban on liquor, smoking, bonfires and wild partying on the beach, officials said.

Only 157 of Boracay’s hundreds of hotels, inns, restaurants and souvenir shops have reopened after complying with the regulations.

AFP Tourists on a beach in Boracay island, which re-opened after a six-month shutdown aimed at undoing the impact of years of being loved to death by millions of holidaymakers.