Boracay hits the million-tourist mark faster than in 2022

BORACAY, Philippines – Boracay registered over a million tourists already for 2023, reaching the mark faster than last year.

In a document sent to Rappler by the Malay Tourism Office, from January to June 15 this year, Boracay has registered 1,040,847 foreign and local tourists.

“It is apparent that domestic tourists top the lists followed by South Koreans. We are, however, still calculating their exact numebrs,” Felix Delos Santos, Malay’s tourism chief told Rappler on Saturday, June 17.

Based on the comparative statistics report, Boracay in January registered the highest number of tourists this year compared to last year. Boracay registered 177,860 foreign, local tourists and the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW’s).

In January 2022, Boracay only registered merely 35,799 domestic tourists.

Last year, Boracay reached the millionth visitor mark in August. Overall, Boracay registered 1,759,592 tourists in 2022.

Earlier, Malay Mayor Floribar Bautista said they are targeting at least two million tourists this year.

As this developed, Barangay Caticlan – a gateway to Boracay – is preparing for a surge of tourists in the months to come.

Raffy Cooper, Barangay Secretary of Caticlan, said Google identified Caticlan as a top destination searched for on Google Flights, the company’s travel search feature. The report indicated Filipinos searched for Tokyo in Japan, Singapore, Bangkok in Thailand, and then Caticlan in Malay. – Rappler.com

Jun Aguirre is an Aries Rufo Journalism fellow.