ILOILO City – There is no truth to social media posts that Boracay Island would be closed once again but this time due to the threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to the local government unit (LGU) of Malay, Aklan.
Those social media posts were “fake information”, stressed the municipal government of Malay.
Just this March 3, the Malay LGU reiterated that Boracay Island – and the whole municipality for that matter – remained free from COVID-19.
The Malay LGU urged the public to refrain from sharing false and unverified information on social media.
Business in Boracay Island is suffering due to the COVID-19 threat. Malay’s Mayor Froliba Bautista said tourist arrivals have gone down by 40 percent.
The 172,695 tourists in January dropped to 103,834 in the following month, Bautista said.
Boracay, the country’s top tourist destination, was closed for six months of massive rehabilitation beginning April 2018; it reopened on October of that year.
To show that the Philippines remained a safe place to visit despite COVID-19, President Rodrigo Duterte had planned to kick off his tour of the country’s top tourist spots in Boracay Island on March 12. But the Palace announced its cancellation on March 11.
Had the visit pushed through, it would have been the President’s first trip to Boracay since the island reopened to tourists in October 2018.
Prior to Boracay’s rehabilitation, Duterte likened the island to a cesspool.
Tourism establishments are “badly hit” by the pandemic, said Elena Brugger, chapter president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI)-Boracay.
“The effect economically is not good because no people, no business,” she said.
For several years now, the island’s top visitors are South Koreans. However, the government recently imposed a partial ban on tourists from the northern part of South Korea that has been hit by COVID-19.
The Philippines stands to lose an estimated of P42.9 billion in tourism receipts this first quarter of 2020 due to the COVID-19 scare. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
