BORACAY – The popular tourist destination in Aklan registered 267,278 tourists for the first quarter this year, the Malay Municipal Tourism Office said.
Two years into the pandemic, the tourism industry on the island barely improved as a result of the easing of travel restrictions. Tourist arrivals surged in 2022, though levels remained below pre-pandemic.
For March alone, the island received 150,597 tourists, roughly 70 percent of tourist arrivals before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Malay Chief Tourism Operations Officer Felix Delos Santos said average daily arrivals were at 4,000 to 6,000 tourists despite the challenges of the global Covid pandemic.
There are 315 accommodation establishments have been accredited in Boracay Island by the Department of Tourism with 12,000 rooms.
Domestic tourists made up the bulk of arrivals, mostly from National Capital Region, Western Visayas, and Calabarzon.
Delos Santos also noted high traffic of foreign visitors from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany as compared to inbound markets of South Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China that came before the pandemic hit in March 2020.
From February to March, just 2,967 foreign visitors arrived on the island this year.
These numbers are likely to increase when hotel bookings are started picking up in April for the Holy Week.
To ease Boracay travel, tourists will enjoy quarantine-free or no on-arrival testing requirements for entering the island.
The government has foreseen a better recovery for the tourism industry with the increase in vaccinated people and individuals receiving their booster shots./PN
