Boracay expects 1.5 million visitors in 2014

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – Tourism officials here are confident that visitor arrivals at the resort island of Boracay will breach the 1.5-million mark this year.

Helen J. Catalbas, regional director of the Department of Tourism in Western Visayas, said the arrival of 10 international cruise ships in Boracay between 2014 and 2016 could help attain the tourist arrival target.

“We have been promoting Boracay as a cruise ship destination in the past two years and we have made positive gains in terms of arrivals,” Ms. Catalbas said.

Visitor arrivals in Boracay increased 13% to 1.368 million last year, according to data from the Caticlan jetty port, the main gateway to Boracay.

The Aklan Provincial Tourism Operations Office (PTOO), for its part, reported that tourist arrivals last year totaled 1.363 million while tourism receipts reached P25.067 billion.

Niven M. Maquirang, administrator of the Caticlan jetty port, said the Aklan provincial government earned P299.5 million in terminal fees and local taxes.

The highest number of arrivals was recorded in April 2013 at 162,237.

The total number of foreign tourists who visited Boracay last year totaled 615,508 while domestic tourists numbered 748,093.

The full-year total was short of the 1.5-million target as hotels and resorts saw room reservations cancelled after typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan).

“The onslaught of the super typhoon Yolanda is the primary reason why we failed to reach the target. Several foreign and local tourists cancelled their room reservations after the typhoon,” Mr. Maquirang said.

However he, expressed confidence in meeting the arrivals target this year.

Just last week, two international cruise ships made port calls in Boracay: MS Costa Victoria on Jan. 8 and MS Europa 2 on Jan. 9. The ships brought an estimated 3,000 passengers, mostly Europeans, to the famed resort island.

Mr. Maquirang said the two ships will return on Feb. 8 and 17.

MS Costa Victoria is owned and operated by Costa Crociere. It has a length of 252 meters and a total capacity of 1,928 passengers and 766 crew members.

MS Europa 2, operated by Hapag Lloyd, has a length of 225.62 m and a total capacity of 516 passengers and less than 370 crew members.

Other cruise ships scheduled to visit Boracay are MS Deutschland (March 7), MS Costa Atlantica (March 11), MS Superstar Aquarius (April 1), MS The World (July 29-30), MV Costa Atlantica (March 11, 2015), MS Celebrity Century (Feb. 3, 2015 and March 17, 2015), MS L’ Anstral (March 14, 2015) and MS Celebrity Millennium (Jan. 25, 2015 and Feb. 5, 2016).

Citing port data, Mr. Maquirang said a total of 1.368 million foreign and domestic tourists visited the island in 2013, against 1.206 million tourists in 2012.