By: Gil delos Santos
I agree that if there’s nothing really that we can help, we better shut up. I have however been personally consulted or invited as a resource person by the municipal legislators when we first feel the decline in Boracay and they have in fact implemented some of our recommendations with the help of other stakeholders (link for reference). So we are extending that opportunity to present this another discussion.
Again, we are looking at the wrong problem. That’s why our solutions don’t match. We acknowledge that there are ground works that truly need fixing — like for instance the nuisance vendors, accessibility and fees issues, infrastructure, myopic policies, and others. However, there are bigger issues which are not often discussed.
We target Boracay to be a MICE destination but the event organizers are in pain in securing permits because of the overpriced licenses — which in some cases, the bigger amount is not declared to the municipal treasury — the LoveBoracay events for instance, most millions went to personal pockets. Under the table extortion is hurting and killing our industry.
Let’s go to the economic challenges which everyone sees the “low” tourist arrival as the culprit. That’s why the focus solution is marketing. One thing we oversee is the factor of over-development.
Let’s do the mathematics again:
172,000 Tourist Arrival (July 2025)
CURRENT ARRIVAL BASIS
5,733 Daily arrival average
÷ 2 Assumed occupant/room
= 2,866 Rooms needed daily
With 14,000 Hotel rooms in Boracay
– 2,866
= 11,134 vacant rooms daily
Equivalent to:
20% Occupancy rate for overnight stay
40% for 3D2N stay (average of the current market)
60% Vacancy means 8,400 rooms vacant daily in Boracay
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CARRYING CAPACITY BASE
6,400 Daily arrival maximum requirement
÷ 2 Assumed occupant/room
= 3,200 Rooms needed daily
With 14,000 Hotel rooms in Boracay
– 3,200
= 10,800 vacant rooms daily
Equivalent to:
23% Occupancy rate for overnight stay
46% for 3D2N stay (average of the current market — most conservative, that’s 7,560 vacant rooms daily)
69% for 3D2N stay
Note:
(1) This computations will have occupancy percentage varietions as markets are always assumed mixed when it comes to duration of stay. (2) There is another 3,000 (unofficial) unpermitted hotel rooms that can further lower the occupancy rate once the establishments acquire licenses to operate. (3) Number of restaurant operators and other businesses also doubled in recent time adding dividing factors on economic impact.
2,304,000 — is the Maximum annual tourist Arrival based on Boracay Carrying Capacity limit
IT MEANS:
(1) Boracay cannot target more than that number.
(2) Marketing efforts to increase arrivals exceeding to 6,400 daily becomes illegal.
(3) The tourism economic decline of Boracay is not caused by low arrival but over supply or OVER-DEVELOPMENT.
(4) Efforts on marketing and promotions are the wrong solution to Boracay tourism’s economic challenges.
A DMO can make things clearer for all of us here in Boracay because it seems that none of us in Malay has the capability to identify the real problem so that real solutions can be applied.
On another note, we also hope that the tourist arrival data is truthful and accurate. There should be no inflated figures nor misclassification — residents and workers are not tourists. Some locals say the island feels empty despite the reported 172,000 tourist arrivals in July, which averages to about 5,700 arrivals per day. This could be cross-checked against actual hotel check-in data for verification.
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