'Standing room only' in Boracay nowadays
The number of vacationers in Boracay island at present has swelled, and there are not enough rooms that some tourists would rather skip sleeping and instead spend the night bar-hopping.
“We could already feel the increase in the number of tourists. It’s starting to get a bit crowded in here,” Tim Ticar of the Department of Tourism (DOT) sub-office in the island told The News Today yesterday in a phone interview. And, he added, the number will further skyrocket comes Lenten Season, during which an estimated 40,000 tourists will spend the Holy Week in Boracay.
The DOT forecasts that for 2009, the number of tourists will be 10% higher compared to last year, Ticar said.
He said that the number of tourists outnumber the available accommodations in the island.
Those who have no rooms reserved for them will find that looking for a room will either be very hard or impossible, or they will have to pay more than the usual rate, Ticar said.
He advised those planning to go to the island to book reservations in advance. “Some even book their reservations a year before,” he stressed.
According to Ticar, some of those who cannot find places to sleep usually go on a bar-hopping and go home the next day if they still cannot find a room.
The number of tourists flocking to the island are at its highest during what is called “super peak”, which is usually from the last week of December to the first week of January, and from March to April. During the super-peak period, room rates increase by an average of around 30%, Ticar said.
The number drops from June to September, during what they call “low season,” he said.