‘NCR bubble’ continues to hurt Boracay tourism

The current restrictions in Metro Manila and its neighboring provinces continues to drag the recovery of the tourism and business sector in Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan.

Tourist arrivals in the island dropped in April 2021 due to the restrictions imposed in the National Capital Region (NCR), leaving the once bustling beach areas in the island almost empty.

From April 1 to April 18, 2021, the Malay Tourism Office recorded only 970 domestic tourists who visited the island.

This is the lowest number of tourist arrivals recorded in the island so far since the first quarter of 2021 where the tourist arrivals in the island was supposedly slowly picking up.

The number of tourists in April is also not enough to fill in the 254 open establishments with more than 11,000 available rooms.

In January, the island recorded 11,898 domestic tourist arrivals. It slowly picked up the following month with 16,487 in February and 17,400 in March, based on the data from Department of Tourism in Western Visayas (DOT-6).

“Tam-an gid ka apektado ang aton nga tourist arrivals sa isla bangod sa aton mga restrictions. We recorded more than 900 domestic tourists who visited the island in April so far especially because may restrictions pa gihapon didto sa NCR,” Neil Solomon Locsin, chief tourism operations officer Boracay Field Compliance and Monitoring Office, reported in a press conference on April 20, 2021.

Currently, the island remains open to tourists from the region and areas under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) and modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), according to Solomon.

Cristine Mansinares, DOT-6 officer-in-charge, noted that while Boracay is open, the number of domestic tourists is limited as the bulk of its market are tourists from NCR.

“Huge ang contribution of tourists from NCR. We are really banking on our domestic tourists especially here in the region. We can only depend on our domestic tourists for the tourism recovery of Boracay and our region,” she said.

Aside from the prevailing restrictions imposed in the NCR, there has also been a surge of cases recorded in the town of Malay in Aklan.

As of April 20, Malay recorded 32 new additional cases bringing the over-all total to 238 with 68 recoveries.

Following the sudden uptick of cases, the DOT-6 said they are closely coordinating with the local government of Malay for the enforcement of strict health protocols in the island to prevent the spread of the virus.

“We are trying to implement other safety protocols governed by the LGU of Malay. So, while Boracay is open we are also working hand in hand with the local authorities to control the Covid-19 situation in the area. Our priority above else are the health and safety of our tourism workers,” Mansinares added. (ERS)