Boracay Island in Philippines Shut Down for Environmental Rehabilitation (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Boracay Island in Philippines Shut Down for Environmental Rehabilitation (2018)

latestly.com

41 pointsDoreenMichele19 comments

Boracay is open since October 2018. The rehabilitation is still ongoing though and visits are regulated[0]. Cases have been filed against officials. Businesses found in violation of environmental laws have been closed down. Infrastructure has also been rehabilitated. Land titles were given to indigenous people through land reform.

It was deemed impossible at the beginning. Imagine cleaning up an island and disrupting the status quo. Some opposed it because of economic impact. Rumors of a casino to be built were unfounded. But seeing the result after, it proved that it can be done through holistic approach. It's one step to responsible tourism. More needs to be done. There's hope for the environment.

The next challenge is the rehabilitation of Manila Bay [1].

[0] https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/09/02/1847925/25-bor...

[1] https://www.philstar.com/nation/2019/03/03/1898154/5-million...

Do you have a source on that land _actually_ being given to the locals? I know they mentioned it, but they were also offering to buy a lot of land as people were failing to make ends meet during the shutdown.[0][1]

0 - https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1000242/rodrigo-duterte-boraca...

1 - https://www.rappler.com/nation/204796-duterte-boracay-native...

> A popular hub for tourism, some business owners and resort owners had opposed the shut down of the island but care has been taken to deal with the opposition.

Duterte is a scary leader. The above line about dealing with opposition is not at all reassuring when extrajudicial killings are a standard part of his governance.

Especially in light of the details that follow:

> Armed security personnel have been sent to provide "maximum" security to the island.

How did this shutdown came about? It sounds to me it is a top down decision to shutdown basically the entire island and all its economic activities for six months. I wonder how many people gone bankrupt due to this.

What exactly is the environmental rehabilitation being done? Why does it necessitate a shutdown? Would the return of tourists eventually undo all the "rehabilitation"?

"MANILA - A shutdown of Boracay Island could lead to job losses for 36,000 people and P56 billion in lost revenue, stakeholders said Thursday, as they appealed for a partial, instead of a full closure.

Around P56 billion in tourism revenue will be lost if the island is closed for 9 months, based on the island's revenue during the first 9 months of 2017, data showed. This is equivalent to roughly 20 percent of the country's total tourism receipts."

https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/03/22/18/boracay-shutdown-...

Consider also the armed security comment, this really shows the way of a totalitarian government.

Been in Boracay.

It's over-rated, there are much more beautiful places in the Philippines.

It's considered largely a failure, the shutdown from most people as most of the cleaning work was not sufficient and was a farce for Chinese Casinos to open up in the are for the influx of Chinese and Korean tourists. This was later given more steam by filipino workers posting photos of themselves on instagram being card dealers, wearing uniforms, etc.

It's been open for the past 6 months now.

Was my favorite vacation spot for years until I moved from the Philippines in ‘99. The water and beaches were beautiful. Even at that point, however, the coral was mostly dead and the marine life mostly gone. It was sad and it’s too bad that the place has largely been thrashed. :-(

So good to hear... this used to be one of Jacques Cousteau's favorite dive areas. Went there in 2008 and it was beautiful, but the reefs didn't look healthy at all. Pretty sad to see.

Old news. Re-opened.

The irony is the url has the word "latest" in it :)

I visited Boracay around 2012, expecting a beautiful island we were shocked by the state we found it in - barely left the hotel all week.

April 2018

Indeed. And it's already open again.

Overtourism is a problem in many places, but not everywhere.

The real issue is that people keep going to the same places as everyone else, instead of checking out the less-traveled places.

Yeah, I personally fail to understand this. I have definitely been guilty of it myself as well.

Every once in a while, I will come across a video on Youtube where some vlogger is at some beach in Thailand or popular touristy night market, or other backpacker haunt and I think, "why do we do this to ourselves?...might as well go to your local nightlife district/beach rather then flying to the other side of the world and going to their nightlife district/beach...". Seems boring.

$1 beers instead of $10

This is one reason I prefer the philippines over thailand. Thailand has amazing food and beautiful beaches, but even second and third tier destinations are so overcrowded with 20something drunk eropean backpackers it's hard to appreciate. Philippines has like a billion islands and beaches, so you can go anywhere except boracay(and maybe a half dozen other popular destinations) and you've practically got the place to yourself.

Because 90% of what makes a tourism destination attractive is the branding and perception. There's thousands of miles of coastline but "Cape Cod" and "Miami beach" have brand images associated with them.

Having grown up in a tourism destination I personally think it's all shit but they serve a useful purpose of keeping the vacationers mostly concentrated. Better to have the trash in the landfill than on the streets.

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