Five thousands hotel rooms will be ready for visitors once Boracay, the Philippines island named by Traveler readers as one of the best islands in the world, reopens October 26. (The island closed for “rehabilitation” in April, after overtourism and unregulated development stressed its resources, to the point that Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte called the island a “cesspool.”) But rumblings of new visitor limits may slow the return of tourists to its famous white sand beaches.
Today, in remarks to the country's Senate, Philippines Secretary of Tourism Bernadette Romulo-Puyat hinted at a tentative limit on arrivals: "We expect only 6,200 tourists [in Boracay] per day only, and 98 percent of them to come via air,” she said, reports local publication GMA News Online. (A task force charged with overseeing Boracay's rehabilitation has also recommended similar limits to the government, according to The Philippine Star.) Prior to Boracay's closure, the island would sometimes welcome up to 70,000 visitors at a time.
Efforts to manage tourism and work within the the new numbers are already underway, as Puyat notes that the department is in talks with airlines to curtail flights to Caticlan and Kalibo, the airports nearest to Boracay, and entry points for most of the island’s tourists. She confirms that national carrier Philippine Airlines has already committed to only one daily flight to Caticlan when, prior to the island’s closure, the airline offered four daily flights from Manila on 180-passenger Airbus A320 planes. Other airlines with flights to Caticlan and Kalibo include AirAsia, SkyJet, Air Juan, and Cebu Pacific, which together operated more than 20 daily arrivals before the closure.
Puyat also detailed three stages for Boracay’s redevelopment, with only the first phase completed in time for the island’s “soft” reopening in October, Philippine political site Politicko reports. The second phase, focused on public works, should wrap by April 2019, with the third and final phase—completion of a new sewer system—slated for a December 2019 completion. Boracay is one of the more than 7,500 islands in the Philippine archipelago, and one of a slew of popular tourist destinations to close or limit visitors in the last year. Luckily, we have some thoughts on where to go instead.