ILOILO CITY – Tourist arrivals in Boracay Island in Aklan unexpectedly reached beyond the limit allowed by the Department of Tourism.
“It was unexpected, especially with the pandemic still not over yet,” Malay town mayor Frolibar Bautista told Manila Bulletin in a phone interview on Tuesday, April 19.
On Monday, Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat of the DOT expressed alarm over the excess in the daily tourist arrivals since the country’s most popular beach destination was allowed to operate after undergoing massive rehabilitation in 2018.
For the Holy Week alone, data from the Malay Tourism Office showed that a total of 44,981 tourists visited Boracay.
Based on guidelines, Boracay should only have 19,215 tourists per day with 6,405 new tourists entering. The 19,215 capacity per day was calculated in terms of the average stay of each tourist to three days.
Boracay reportedly had 21,252 tourists last Maundy Thursday (April 14) and 22,519 tourists last Good Friday (April 15).
Bautista said that pandemic policies such as the issuance of QR codes for travelers and checking of vaccination cards gave an added burden to the personnel who checked the requirements.
Bautista also said that it is the Aklan provincial government and not the local government of Malay which checks the necessary requirements from Boracay-bound tourists.