ILOILO CITY – A total of 150,597 tourists visited Boracay Island in March alone this year in what was the highest number of arrivals ever recorded during the pandemic period.
The March 2022 tourist arrivals broke the highest number recorded last December 2021 when 113,596 tourists visited the country’s most famous beach destination in Malay town, Aklan province.
Based on the data released by the Malay Tourism Office, there was an increase of 69,715 visitors in Boracay. In comparison, there were 80,882 tourists who visited Boracay last February 2022.
Majority of the 150,597 visitors of Boracay in March were domestic tourists, which accounted for the 146,440 arrivals.
Foreign tourists were still relatively low with only 2,533 arrivals while there were 1,624 tourists who are Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
The numbers for March 2022 though still pale in comparison to tourists arrivals before the pandemic. For instance, more than 167,070 tourists visited Boracay last January 2020 or less than two months before travel restrictions were put in place.
Meanwhile, the local government of Malay and the Department of Tourism (DOT) are expecting thousands of more tourists to flock to Boracay for the summer season.