Much has been said of Boracay’s emergence as a world-class tourist destination, particularly its part in propelling the Philippines’s image as the ideal tropical get-away; the island’s fine white sand and its postcard-perfect waters has made it a top draw globally for tourists.
Just this January, air arrivals were estimated at 624,245 visitors according to the Department of Tourism (DOT), with Boracay’s main gateway, the Kalibo International Airport, getting 8 percent of that.
For 2017 the DOT sees Boracay island attracting 1.7 million visitors.
But for the women social entrepreneurs of Boracay, the phenomenal tourism boom of Boracay makes them feel like they’re on the outside looking in.
“Look at how developed Boracay is now; If you look closely, there’s nothing there for the community, the women,” said Desiree T. Segovia, chairman of the Boracay Women Producers Cooperative in a recent interview.
The cooperative, mostly made up of indigent Boracay women natives, began in 2013, with the aim of providing livelihood for its members through encouraging entrepreneurship.
It has had a slow but steady growth: On the entrepreneurship front, the women have managed to put up a mini-mart/organic trading post to sell their organic cosmetics and food items as souvenirs to tourists.
On the advocacy on women’s issues and training, the women have also created a small women’s center for their weekly meetings mostly focusing on strengthening the social bonds among their group.
The island’s weekly Women’s Hour incorporates livelihood training sessions as well containerized gardening, environmental education and agri-herbal tourism trainings, to name a few.
Even with these achievements, Segovia says their group’s aspirations go beyond the modest trading post and meetings—and this means putting their own community first before the hordes of tourists flocking the island.
“ ‘Heritage Boracay’ is our showcase of the culture of Boracay. We want to showcase the food, the arts and crafts and the cultural practices. But for us, Heritage Boracay is first an industrial hub. Yes, the tourists will come, but we’ve learned our lesson: now we want the community first as a market. Then, when it becomes well known, it can be marketed to the tourists,” Segovia remarked.
After finding that upscale resorts and hotel developments, as well as foreign tourists, were unreceptive to the cooperatives’ products and goods, Segovia said that time to look to the
women first.
“We will make our food and cosmetics products ourselves. We have our own businesses and we buy from each other as well,” the chairwoman said, explaining that members profit via patronage refunds.
Through this initiative of ramping up sales and production, the women’s cooperative is hoping to provide informal employment to all of its 90 members, plus a few more from the community this year.
The future of the Heritage Boracay area, which will be the center for the women’s businesses, however, rests on the government.
The area and property for the Heritage Boracay concept continues to pend at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It has been there since 2014. In the meantime, the cooperative relies on members leasing small properties to set up their business.
“Once that [public land] is given to us, we can have the industrial hub and it can be a whole new activity for the tourists. They can watch the women do their work, how the food is being made, and so on,” she mused.
The Heritage Boracay concept is envisioned to be a 2-hectare property where the Boracay Women Producers Cooperative will have an organic farm and restaurant, an eco-industrial hub, a herbal spa, and in the future, possibly a hotel and center.
“We want these natives, these women, to have something for themselves, something to call their own. It’s dignifying and empowering,” Segovia said.