Boracay, Province of Aklan, Western Visayas Region, Philippines

🇵🇭 Boracay is a resort island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. It lies 0.8 km off the north-west coast of Panay. It is under the jurisdiction of three barangays in Malay.

Boracay was originally inhabited by the Tumandok and Ati people, but commercial development has led to their severe marginalization since the 1970s.

Apart from its white sand beaches, Boracay is also famous for being one of the world's top destinations for relaxation. As of 2013, it was emerging among the top destinations for tranquility and nightlife.

Boracay was awarded as the 2012 Best Island in the World by the international travel magazine Travel + Leisure. In 2014, the resort island was at the top of the "Best Islands in the World" list published by the international magazine Condé Nast Traveler. In 2016, Boracay headed the magazine's list of "Top 10 destinations to watch".

In April 2018, the Philippine government under former president Rodrigo Duterte decreed a six-month closure of the island for tourists to undertake major renovation works, especially of the sewage system, which had become obsolete and insufficient. The island was administered by the Boracay Inter-agency Task Force during the closure, then it re-opened in October 2018, with a set of new rules meant to address a variety of issues.

History Before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in the 16th century, Boracay was populated by Ati people. It was known to the Iberian conquerors as Buracay. At the time of contact with the Europeans, Buracay had a population of one hundred people, who cultivated rice on the island and augmented their income by raising goats.

The Tumandok people also established an indigenous presence on the island, although the identities of the two indigenous peoples is often conflated.

Contemporary period Boracay was previously part of the province of Capiz. It was under the jurisdiction of the town of Buruanga until the municipality of Malay was established on June 15, 1949. The municipality, as well as the island, became part of Aklan, which became an independent province on April 25, 1956.

Before the advent of tourism, Boracay was largely an agricultural community. Around 1900 A.D., Sofía Gonzáles Tirol and her husband Lamberto Hontiveros Tirol (a town judge on the Panay mainland) took ownership of substantial properties on the island from „Orang“ Sacapaño. They planted coconuts, fruit trees and greenery. Others followed the Tirols, and cultivation and development of the island gradually spread. The production of copra and fishing were major industries in the island.

However, due to overharvesting by fishers and the destruction of coral reef due to cyanide fishing, the fishing industry saw a decline. By the 1980s, the price of copra had declined, encouraging tourism as an alternative source of income for the island.

In 1978, President Ferdinand Marcos issued a proclamation naming Boracay among a number of islands, coves and peninsulas declared as tourist zones.

Influx of tourism (1970s to 1997) Tourism came to the island beginning sometime in the 1970s. In 1970, the movies Nam's Angels (released in the U.S. as The Losers) and Too Late the Hero used filming locations on Boracay and Caticlan. There was an influx of Western tourists after German writer Jens Peter called it "paradise on Earth" in his book about the Philippines in 1978. In the 1980s, the island became popular as a budget destination for backpackers. By the 1990s, Boracay's beaches were being acclaimed as the best in the world. However, in 1997, tourist arrivals to the resort island dropped 60 percent due to the increase of coliform bacteria from poor sewage and septic systems on the island.

1997 to 2018 The condition of Boracay in 1997 led to the installment of a potable water supply system and a sewage treatment plant and a solid waste disposal system in Boracay which was operated by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA). The environmental concerns persisted due to noncompliance of numerous business establishments.

Then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared Boracay a Special Tourism Zone in 2005, and in April 2006 she gave the PTA administrative control over the island while mandating the agency to coordinate with the provincial government of Aklan.

In 2012, the Philippine Department of Tourism reported that Boracay had been named the world's second best beach after Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

2018 closure and rehabilitation Due to worsening environmental conditions in Boracay, President Rodrigo Duterte in February 2018 said he planned to close the resort island, which he described as a "cesspool", on April 26, 2018, instructing Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu to resolve the issue. In a cabinet meeting, President Duterte approved the full closure of the island for six months, effective April 26, 2018, to rehabilitate and resolve the environmental issues surrounding Boracay. On May 30, 2018, President Duterte declared that he planned to make the entire Boracay a land reform area and wanted to first prioritize the island's residents.

In April 2018, the Philippine Army's 301st Infantry Brigade confirmed that 200 soldiers were deployed to Boracay to secure the island during its shutdown starting April 26.

On October 26, 2018, Boracay was reopened to the public with work on the island's infrastructure still in progress. In April 2019, numerous Chinese-owned businesses were opened in Boracay, and additionally, there are about 300 mainland Chinese residents. In April 2019, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that the Department of Labor and Employment has no control over foreign businesses setting up shop on the island, but that it vows to ensure that no Chinese national could take jobs fit for Filipinos.

2020 COVID-19 pandemic

The municipality of Malay, including Boracay island, was closed to tourism effective March 19, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The island would eventually be re-opened to tourists with COVID-19 protocols implemented as cautionary measure.

Geography Boracay Island is located 0.8 km (0.50 mi) off the north-west corner of Panay Island and belongs to the Western Visayas region, or Region VI, of the Philippines. It is 50 km (31 mi) north-west of Kalibo, 150 km (93 mi) north-west of Iloilo City, and 200 nautical miles (370 km) south-east of Manila. The island is approximately seven km long, dog-bone shaped, with the narrowest spot being less than one kilometer wide, and has a total land area of 10.32 square km (3.98 sq mi).

South-facing Cagban Beach is located across a small strait from the jetty port at Caticlan on Panay island, and the Cagban jetty port serves as Boracay's main entry and exit point during most of the year. When wind and sea conditions dictate, east-facing Tambisaan Beach serves as an alternative entry and exit point. Boracay's two primary tourism beaches, White Beach and Bulabog Beach, are located on opposite sides of the island's narrow central area. White Beach faces westward and Bulabog Beach faces eastward. The island also has several other beaches.

White Beach, the main tourism beach, is about 4 km (2.5 mi) long and is lined with resorts, hotels, lodging houses, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses. In the central portion, for about two kilometers, there is a footpath known as the Beachfront Path separating the beach itself from the establishments located along it. North and south of the Beachfront Path, beachfront establishments do literally front along the beach itself. Several roads and paths connect the Beachfront Path with Boracay's Main Road, a vehicular road which runs the length of the island. At the extreme northern end of White Beach, a footpath runs around the headland there and connects White Beach with Diniwid Beach.

Bulabog Beach, across the island from White Beach, is the second most popular tourism beach on the island and Boracay's main windsurfing and kiteboarding area.

Boracay is divided for land use and conservation purposes into 400 hectares (990 acres) of preserved forestland and 628.96 hectares (1,554.2 acres) of agricultural land.

Governance The whole of Boracay island is under the jurisdiction of the town of Malay of Aklan province. There are three barangays in Boracay; Balabag, Manoc-Manoc, and Yapak.

Tourist Industry Partly because of its wind and weather patterns, tourism in Boracay is at its peak during the amihan season (which generally starts around the Christmas season and runs through February). During amihan, the prevailing wind blows from the east. Boracay's main tourism area, White Beach, is on the western side of the island and is sheltered from the wind. During the Amihan season, the water off White Beach is often glassy-smooth. On the eastern side of the island, hills on the northern and southern ends of the island channel the Amihan season wind from the east onshore, onto Bulabog Beach in the central part of the island's eastern side. This makes the reef-protected waters off that beach relatively safe and ideal for scuba diving, windsurfing, and kiteboarding / kitesurfing.

In June 2011, it was reported that Megaworld Corporation, a real estate development group led by Andrew Tan had earmarked ₱20 billion to develop tourism estates in Boracay and Cavite. The planned Boracay project, Boracay Newcoast, involves four hotels with 1,500 rooms, a plaza and an entertainment center.

Other resorts in Boracay include Discovery Shores, a luxury five-star resort managed by a Filipino hospitality group called The Discovery Leisure Company Inc. and owned by Discovery World Corp. The building, with 88 suites, a spa, and four restaurants and bars, stands at Station One on the White Beach, and has been described as "more Miami chic than hidden oasis".

The island has the highest density of merchants that accept bitcoin outside of El Salvador. There is a movement to dub the island "Bitcoin Island" and bootstrap a circular economy similar to Bitcoin Beach.

Leisure activities Leisure activities available on or near Boracay include horseback riding, scuba diving, diving helmet, snorkeling, windsurfing, kiteboarding, cliff diving, parasailing.

Boracay is the site of an 18-hole par 72 golf course designed by Graham Marsh. In addition, as of 2010, Boracay has in excess of 350 beach resorts offering more than 2,000 rooms ranging in quality from five-star to budget accommodation. In addition, Boracay offers a wide range of restaurants, bars, pubs, and nightclubs.

A landmark natural rock formation, Boracay's Rock, juts prominently directly in front of Willy's Beach Resort.

Statistics According to the Department of Tourism of the Philippines, there was a recorded 1,725,483 visitors to Boracay in 2016. This was an increase of 250,000 from the previous year. Assuming the average length of stay of tourists to Boracay is three days, the number of tourists on the island each day was calculated at 14,182. According to Malay municipal records more than two million tourists visited the island in 2017.

Sport Boracay has been a competitive venue for the Asian Windsurfing Tour, with the week-long Boracay International Funboard Cup competition usually held in January on Bulabog Beach. In 2010, the 2011 event dates were scheduled as January 24 – 29. CNNGo, a division of CNN focused on travel/lifestyle/entertainment, selected the Boracay International Funboard Competition on the weekend of January 22–24 as one of its 52 weekend recommendations for 2010.

Dragon boat races are held annually on Boracay under the auspices of the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation, with teams coming from around the Philippines and from other Asian nations to compete. The races usually take place sometime in April or May. The 2012 Boracay Edition of the PDBF International Club Crew Challenge to was scheduled for April 26–28, in 2012.

The Boracay Open Asian Beach Ultimate Tournament, an ultimate frisbee event, with players coming from around the Philippines and from other International nations, has been held annually since 2003, usually in March or April.

Asian Games Centennial Festival Boracay was scheduled to host a special multi-sport event in 2013. At its 31st General Assembly in Macau, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) decided to create the Asian Games Centennial Festival in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Oriental Games (later Far Eastern Championship Games). OCA awarded the hosting rights to the Philippines as it had been the host of the first Far Eastern Championship Games held in Manila 100 years earlier. The festival was to be held on Boracay in November 2013. However, it had to be rescheduled and relocated because of Typhoon Haiyan, with the ceremony eventually taking place at the Sofitel Plaza in Manila on January 17, 2014. The 32nd OCA General Assembly was to be held in conjunction with the games.

Culture The first settlers of Boracay were a Negrito people called the Ati, and who spoke a distinctive Philippine language called Inati. Later settlers brought other languages to the island, including Aklanon (as Boracay is part of Aklan province), Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), Kinaray-a, Capiznon, other Visayan languages, Filipino, and English.

The well-known Ati-Atihan Festival takes place each January in Kalibo on nearby Panay Island. A much smaller Ati-Atihan festival is celebrated on Boracay, usually in the second or third week of January.

Transport Boracay island is separated from Panay island by a narrow strait. The island is located opposite the barangay of Caticlan in the municipality of Malay, Aklan. Transportation across the strait is provided by boats operating from the Caticlan jetty port. Cagban Port serves as the primary sea transportation hub for passengers going into Boracay but the island lacks any formal seaport for cargo transport and waste disposal. Goods are delivered into Boracay through an informal port near the Cagban Port.

Boracay is served by two airports in Aklan: the Kalibo International Airport and Godofredo P. Ramos Airport (commonly referred to as the Caticlan airport).

The three main modes of transport are via motor-tricycles and electric-tricycles (e-trikes) along the main road, or by walking along the beaches. Pedicabs, known as sikads, are also available along the Beachfront Path. Other means of transportation include mountain bikes, quadbikes and motorbikes, all of which can be rented. It was reported in October 2018 that the island will see modern jeepneys, solar-powered shuttles, and hop-on hop-off buses serviced by Grab, and that the Department of Energy will donate 200 e-trikes to the Malay local government under a ₱1.73 billion project funded by the Asian Development Bank.

The municipal government of Malay is currently encouraging motorcycle operators to transition to e-trikes in their coordinated efforts to promote environment-friendly public transportation. Diesel-motor tricycles are expected to be phased out by August 2018.

Awards Boracay Island earned the eighth spot in the annual Condé Nast Traveler (CNT) readers' choice awards for top islands to visit this 2021.