Boracay’s tourism misses 2014 target due to typhoons, China travel ban

Boracay Island. Photo by Angelo Juan Ramos.

BORACAY, Aklan — This resort island has missed its target for the second year because of weather disturbances and the recent China travel ban in the Philippines.

Niven Maquirang, Boracay jetty port administrator, said that based on their official records around 1,472,352 foreign and local tourists visited this resort island in year 2014. Boracay’s target for the year was pegged at 1.5 million tourists.

It could be recalled that the Chinese government had temporarily called for a travel ban in the Philippines following the abduction of a Chinese teenager in Zamboanga in October. Reports from the Department of Tourism revealed that the Boracay tourism industry had lost around P500 million over the said Chinese travel ban.

“The recent typhoon Ruby and Seniang have also affected the tourism industry of Boracay,” Maquirang said.

The 2014 data revealed the top ten foreign tourists arrival includes South Koreans which registered 263, 377; China, 165, 243; Taiwan, 48, 354; USA, 22, 203; Malaysia, 19, 452; Singapore, 18, 175; Russia, 17, 945; Australia, 17, 649; Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 11, 136 and the United Kingdom, 10, 549.

In 2013, the jetty port which is under the Aklan Provincial Government had also targeted 1.5 million tourists, but it missed the target following the onslaught of Super Typhoon ‘Haiyan’ in November. Boracay has registered 1, 367, 767 foreign and local tourists.

“For 2015, we are targeting 1.6 million tourists for Boracay,” said Maquirang.

For this year 2015, Boracay will be hosting at least two conferences for the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) and at least 16 cruise ships are also expected to dock in Boracay.