Boracay exceeds tourist carrying capacity during Holy Week

Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat urged the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to take “appropriate action” after Boracay Island exceeded its carrying capacity during the Holy Week.

“We continue our coordination with them, especially the DILG, which has jurisdiction over the LGU (local government unit), to address this concern and prevent similar incidents from happening in the future,” Puyat said in a statement.

The DILG and DENR are part of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force that is in charge of the island’s rehabilitation.

The world-famous island resort in the town of Malay, Aklan accomodated 21,252 tourists on April 14 and 22,519 more on April 15, data from the Malay Tourism Office showed.

Puyat noted that the carrying capacity for Boracay is 19,215 persons per day.

Aklan is currently under Alert Level 1, the lowest COVID-19 alert level.IMT