BORACAY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is reviewing Boracay Island’s carrying capacity of 19,215 visitors daily set in 2018.
The result may be released by June 15,” said Department of Tourism (DOT) regional director Cristine Mansinares.
Tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat last week called on the local government unit (LGU) of Malay, Aklan for Boracay’s exceeding of its carrying capacity during Holy Week.
Malay has jurisdiction over Boracay.
The number of tourists in the island was recorded at 21, 252 on April 14 (Holy Thursday) and 22,519 on the next day (Good Friday).
The figures differed from the data of the Malay Tourism Office which showed that from April 11 to 17 (Holy Week), the arrivals reached 44,981; the highest was on Maundy Thursday with 12,266 guests.
The Malay data, however, referred to the new arrivals and did not include the guests already staying on the island, who were still part of the carrying capacity, according to Mansinares.
DOT, meantime, has yet to receive a copy of the reply of the local government of Malay town on the violation since the letter of Puyat was addressed to the DENR and was copy furnished to the LGU.
Mansinares added that the DENR, DOT, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) are already discussing possible measures to address the problem.
“In terms of details as to the next steps, we will rely on our respective secretaries through the Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group,” she said.
Boracay was closed off to tourists for a massive six-month environmental cleanup and rehabilitation beginning April 2018. It reopened to tourism activities in October of the same year but the government put a cap to the number of tourists that the island could accommodate daily – the so-called carrying capacity at 19,215 persons.
Despite the cap, Boracay tourism stakeholders welcomed the island’s October 2018 reopening. But just a year after, efforts to restart the local tourism industry hobbled again, this time due to the coronavirus pandemic that struck the country. The number of Boracay’s tourists dropped to April 2018 levels due to quarantine restrictions.
Beginning late last year, quarantine restrictions in the island were gradually lifted. But tourists, especially from abroad – the main source of Malay’s tourism revenues – were hard to come by.
It was only two months ago when tourist arrivals started picking up again – this was when COVID-19 cases started to dwindle and there was a massive vaccination of islanders and workers. (PNA)
