Boracay attracts more guests

The number of tourists in Boracay rose 12.15 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2010.  Foreign visitors staying at hotels and resorts on the world-famous resort island grew faster at 26 percent, compared to the 6 percent increase among domestic tourists.
Taiwanese and Chinese tourists in Boracay continued to expand with the increase in charter flight operations between Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan and Shanghai to Kalibo.

Boracay posted PhP3.4 billion in tourism revenues during the past summer months of April and May, according to a report by Philippine News Agency.   The Department or Tourism (DoT) said the resort island generated some PhP1.8 billion in April and another PhP1.6 billion in May.
DOT regional director Edwin Trompeta said many of these tourists were Asians, particularly Koreans, Japanese and Chinese from mainland China.  Other visitors were from the United States, United Kingdom and central Europe.
In the two-month period, some 188,600 tourists visited the island.  These included 4,537 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), 142,790 local tourists, and 41,265 foreign visitors.
“We are enjoying a good year despite the global crisis,” said resort owner Nenette Aguirre-Graf, former president of the Boracay Foundation Inc.
However, Boracay has become extremely overdeveloped, with its famous beach now choked by sewage and too many bars, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said in a report by Agence France-Presse.  "If you go to Boracay you'd love the beach, you'd love the night life and the good restaurants. But it's so dense,” Secretary Lim was quoted as saying.
The new tourism chief said this is because environmental and zoning regulations are not being enforced on the island, leading to structures even being built inside the high-water mark.