Hotel exec: Boracay not congested

Despite the notion that Boracay Island, one of the country’s premiere destination, has reached the peak of congestion prompting a few to call it a “tiangge,” one hotel executive in the island said otherwise, saying Boracay just needs a little tweak in its development management.

“Potentials for opportunity in Boracay is very high because everybody is making money not only the hotels, restaurants, shops but even the locals and that makes it one of the country’s major destination,” said One MGM general manager and chief operating officer Rey L. Fuentes in a separate interview.

Fuentes said despite the current dispute on the island’s problems on sanitation and overdevelopment, he said Boracay’s tourism industry is far from being congested but rather the case in point may have been caused by the island’s lack of guidance in terms of development.

“Contrary to what others say, Boracay is not congested; but it needs to be managed. With its rapid development, it needs guidance and a tourism master plan especially with the big opportunities that are being presented to us right now,” Fuentes added.

He also said that these opportunities can be attributed to the island’s growing popularity as an international tourism destination which is one of the reasons why airline companies continue to put focus in the island by adding frequencies in their flights to Caticlan, Aklan’s gateway to the island.

On the other hand, amidst a global economic slowdown and price spikes of basic commodities these days, tourism stakeholders in Boracay Island remain optimistic to attract more domestic and foreign visitors.

Tourism records showed tourist arrivals in Boracay went up by 8% to almost 600,000 last year and stakeholders from the island’s tourism industry believe this is due to the unwavering popularity of their long stretch of white sandy shores and other tourism attractions.

“Bora offers everything that no other destination can offer because there is a wide-range of activities that everybody, both domestic and foreign markets can enjoy in the island,” said Annie Convocar, the Marketing Consultant of inland resort Boracay Tropics.

Out of the island’s total tourist arrivals last year, 359,433 were local tourists; whereas, 208,870 were from countries as far as Europe, America and other countries in Asia and 28,404 of which were Filipino overseas workers. Meanwhile, Korean tourists were the bulk of foreign visitors reaching 128,909 last year from 124,618 in 2006.

Boracay Tropics and One MGM are only two from the multiple rosters of hotels, inns and pension houses that are operating in the island. Nowadays, more new ones are also sprouting like mushrooms in the area as well as commercial establishments.