BORACAY – Tourist visits in Boracay Island declined to 1,579,828 for the first three quarters of 2024, or 4.70 percent lower compared to the 1,652,586 tourists recorded in the same period last year.
Boracay Island welcomed 315,888 international visitors from January to September this year, per latest data from Malay Municipal Tourism Office.
The island also saw 321,913 overseas arrivals in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 1.87 percent.
In 2024, domestic tourists accounted to 79 percent of the total arrivals. Malay Municipal Tourism Office data, however, recorded a drop in domestic visitors to Boracay Island by just 4.30 percent.
The world-famous island attracted 1,240,939 domestic tourists in the first nine months of 2024 compared to 1,296,672 in 2023.
In September alone, there were 100,497 domestic visitors and 20,468 foreigners. This compared with September 2023 of 94,160 domestic visitors and 29,528 international travelers.
The mainland China is a valuable inbound market for Boracay Island, but due to ongoing maritime dispute, arrivals from China dropped sharply.
Passenger traffic on direct flights from South Korea and Taiwan to Kalibo International Airport also had significantly suffered a dramatic fall.
In 2023, Malay Municipal Tourism Office tracked more than 2.1 million visitors, increasing from 1.58 million registered in 2022.
There were also 2.034 million tourists during pre-pandemic year 2019./PN
