By Tara Yap ILOILO – The threat posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has made a significant dent on the number of tourist arrivals in Boracay Island, the country’s most popular beach destination in Malay town, Aklan province. Based on the data released by the Malay Tourism Office, there was a 40-percent drop in tourist arrivals for February 2020 alone with only 103,834 foreign and domestic tourists. In comparison, there were 172,695 tourists for February 2019. The biggest drop is the foreign tourist arrivals, which accounted for more than 51 percent. For February 2020, there were only 40,436 foreign tourists.  In comparison, there were 115,143 foreign tourists for February 2019. The data recently released dispelled notions that there was no significant impact following reports of suspected cases of tourists coming from China and the subsequent travel ban initially imposed by the Duterte administration to flights coming in and out of China and its territories. Data also revealed that the biggest drop was in the Chinese market with only 490 tourists visiting for February 2020.  In comparison, there were 59,768 Chinese tourists for the same month of last year. While the Chinese tourists dwindled, there were still other foreign tourists including the 21,933 tourists from South Korean, the 2,464 tourists from the United States and the 1,600 tourists from Russia. On the other hand, Filipino tourists still flocked to the resort island in February with 63,398 arrivals that also included overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). It was actually higher than the 57,552 domestic tourist arrivals for February 2019. The data does not cover the first week of March when the Department of Health (DOH) reported local transmissions of COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile, both government agencies and local officials are preparing for the scheduled Thursday visit of President Duterte to promote domestic tourism despite the COVID-19 scare.