IN FOCUS: Revitalised Boracay island in the Philippines faces next challenge – the return of mass tourism

TIME TO TAKE PAUSE

Just as tourists have been drawn en masse to the white sands over the years, entrepreneurs, street vendors, gambling personalities and resort tycoons have ridden the same winds blowing into Boracay, chasing a slice of the earnings.

Aguirre-Graf, the former head of the Boracay Foundation – a non-profit charged with “sustaining the island’s environmental, business and social needs” – and an officer of the local hotel association, said that the island’s fabric will only be further damaged if the relentless pursuit of profit is allowed to run.

“We cannot only think about profit. We should also think about the future, how the island will survive if we keep on putting more buildings and bringing more people,” she said.

“The management of the garbage and preservation of our flora and fauna on the island is very important because there has to be balance.

“If we have to open it to mass tourism, again, we have to really impose strict regulations so that those things that happened before will not happen again. 

“I’m sure there will be a way but we just have to install all the necessary infrastructure in order to sustain growth in Boracay. But sometimes you doubt your governments, you know,” she said.

Boracay faces a litany of challenges, including erosion on its White Beach, driven by rising sea levels and climate change, hundreds of sinkholes throughout the island caused by soil erosion and sustained leaking of water pipes and sewerage lines and the overall pursuit of sustainable and equitable development.

At the same time, the building of new hotels, resorts and restaurants is rapidly underway.