TOURIST arrivals in Western Visayas dropped by 15.33 percent to some 4.96 million in 2018, largely due to the closure of Boracay Island for six months.
Tourism receipts likewise declined by 18.6 percent to some P105 billion in 2018, from P129 billion recorded by the region in 2017.
Data from Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 6 made available to the BusinessMirror showed a 50.32-percent fall in arrivals in the province of Aklan, where Boracay is located, to 1.1 million in 2018. Similarly, visitor receipts in the province slipped by about 48 percent to P31.5 billion.
DOT Regional Director Helen Catalbas, however, expressed optimism those numbers will improve this year, with the full reopening of Boracay, famous the world over for its expansive white beach.
The second phase of the island resort’s reopening will be on April 26, coinciding with the first anniversary of its closure.
The DOT official said a series of celebratory events will be held on the island starting that date until Labor Day, May 1. “It will no longer be ‘Laboracay,’ but ‘Love Boracay,’” she said, to underscore the government’s thrust for sustainable tourism.
She noted that, while the arrivals in Western Visayas decreased by over 15 percent in 2018, this was “500,000 less” than the original target of arrivals for the region set by the DOT at the beginning of that year, or 5.46 million.
“The other provinces and two highly urbanized cities helped a lot in cushioning the impact of the six-month Boracay closure to tourism,” explained Catalbas on the sidelines of the launch of Park Inn by Radisson in Iloilo City last week.
The visitor receipts in the region for 2018, for instance, were still the third highest in the last five years, and higher than the P102.27 billion generated in 2015. The 2018 receipts were also just 8 percent less than the P114.12 billion recorded in 2016.
She added, the DOT has targeted arrivals in Iloilo City to reach 1.4 million this year, from the 1.24 million recorded in 2017 as the city improves its standing as a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) destination. Officials of SM Hotels and Resorts Corp., led by its President Elizabeth T. Sy, inaugurated Park Inn by Radisson in Iloilo on April 2, in a bid to capture a slice of the region’s expanding MICE market. (See, “SM unit allots P8.2-billion capex to expand, renovate hotels,” in the BusinessMirror, April 3, 2019.)
Of the total arrivals in the region last year, tourists in Capiz, known as the “seafood capital of the Philippines,” increased by almost 16 percent to 265,662; Guimaras Island, a beach destination and major exporter of Philippine mangoes, was up 4.11 percent to 133,525; Iloilo City grew by 15.33 percent to 1.24 million, while the rest of the province was up 11.74 percent to 347,375; and Bacolod City rose 0.45 percent to 835,453, while the rest of Negros Occidental increased by 3.14 percent to 920,242.
Only Antique registered a decrease in visitor arrivals by some 33.6 percent to 108,220. Unlike the other provinces in the region, there are no direct flights to Antique, with tourists having to pass either through Aklan or Iloilo, about a three- to six-hour ride by public transport.
Domestic tourists made up the bulk of the tourists in Western Visayas at 4.13 million, just 11 percent lower than in 2017. Foreign travelers, however, plunged by 33 percent to 783,732, still reflecting the impact of Boracay’s closure on the overall tourism numbers for the region.
The region’s top 10 tourist markets last year were: China, with arrivals at 258,579, accounting for 33 percent of market share; followed by South Korea at 216,506 arrivals (27.63 percent); United States at 49,372 arrivals (6.3 percent); Australia at 18,887 arrivals (2.41 percent); Russia at 16,756 arrivals (2.14 percent); Japan at 16,640 arrivals (2.1 percent); Canada at 15,512 arrivals (1.98 percent); United Kingdom at 15,431 arrivals (1.97 percent); Taiwan at 12,507 arrivals (1.6 percent); and Germany at 11,784 arrivals (1.5-percent market share).