Boracay hits 190,094 tourists in first quarter
BORACAY — Tourist arrivals for the first three months in the island of Boracay posted 190,094, records from the Malay Municipal Tourism Office revealed.Of the total figure, 72,150 were foreign visitors and domestic travelers posted 110,100.
The top market visitors are Koreans, Chinese and Taiwanese. Koreans numbered 22,578 or 31.29 percent of the total foreigners followed by Chinese with 11,172 and Taiwanese visitors totaled 8,949.
Other countries, namely, United States also posted 4,236 travelers, United Kingdom with 2,120 and Australia with 1,930 visitors.
Visitors from the East Asian neighbors–Hongkong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China accounted for 46,289 arrivals followed by North America countries of Mexico, Canada and Mexico with 5,819 and Northern Europe–United Kingdom, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden with 5,773 tourists.
Western Europe comprised of Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Czech Republic and Switzerlands totaled 5,082 arrivals. A total of 7,844 overseas Filipinos also visited Boracay Island from January to March this year.
Last year, the Department of Tourism (DoT) registered January arrivals of 51,117 and February with 48,822 tourists compared to 54,461 travelers for January and 59,928 tourists this year.
The increase in foreign tourist arrivals is attributed to direct regional flights from mainland China, Korea and Taiwan to Kalibo International Airport and the intensive efforts of the provincial government to promote the beach destination.
Boracay, the anchor tourism destination of the province of Aklan, received 649,559 tourists last year, of which 29.70 percent or 192,873 were foreigners. (Boy Ryan B. Zabal)
