Boracay a "Cesspool" to be shut down?

[bshort4]

President Duterte visited Boracay and called it a "cesspool" and gave the government and the island of Boracay six months to clean up it's act or be closed down till it does. Now the government is wanting to close down the island from June 1st to July 31st of this year to be able to fix a lot of the infrastructure problems Boracay has. If they manage to do that there are going to be a lot of pissed off and unemployed people there. I've visited Boracay four times in the last six years and could see it getting worse with every passing year---with the new runway at the local airport now finished allowing the larger jets to fly there from international destinations the overcrowding will become even worse in a place that is already overcrowded. The infrastructure problems just keep compounding themselves. Its always just been looked at as a "cash cow" with no regard to the place being totally over developed and destroyed. This may be a wake up call not just to Boracay but other tourist spots (Panglao Island, Bohol? A new international airport on the island to be finished this year) that will be running into the same problems in the future. As beautiful as Boracay is (or was) I couldn't bring myself to visit there again these past few years because of all its problems. Good luck to Boracay and hope for everyone's sake that these problems can be overcome and fixed.

 

[bshort4]

Picture in Boracay in front of the Crystal Sands hotel at Station 2. It was a small eight room hotel which was sold and torn down three years ago to make room for a Henann Resort with 275 rooms--so sad.

 

[Jay]

... As beautiful as Boracay is (or was) I couldn't bring myself to visit there again these past few years because of all its problems. Good luck to Boracay and hope for everyone's sake that these problems can be overcome and fixed.

Same here. We visited for the first time late last year and wouldn't return. It's been/being developed aggressively with little planning for anything (inc, buildings, roads, stormwater etc). Seems everything there is money controlled. Even getting 'hassled' on the beach every time, multiple times a day to buy something gets a bit annoying over time.

Also don't make the error we made and think the back henna tattoos look like a fun holiday thing. They're dangerous as hell: The dangers of black (neutral) henna - Live Well - NHS Choices

 

[Centrals]

It was 2001 when I last went there and have not return since. The Long Beach is indeed very large and nice but diving is very ordinary.
All these large developments are catered for one country!!! Duterte is going to give Scarborough Shoal to commie china! He definitely forgot what he had said before he became the president!

 

[Jay]

They're closing it effective 26th April for 6 months.

The article also notes it's unclear how that will be implemented.

Philippines to shut popular tourist island

 

[kommisarrex]

I lived in the Philippines from 2009-2011 and even then I thought Boracay was kind of a hole (and mediocre diving when compared with other parts of the Philippines). It's a beautiful beach and the kite surfing is world class on the other side of the island, but it's clear no thought was put into infrastructure. Sad to hear it's gotten worse.

 

[eelpout]

Boracay was never a true diving destination, ever. The main attraction was the beach. There are too many locations in the Philippines to go diving. There are too many sites that have not been developed at all because of the logistics such as availability of fresh water. My brother has been a research Marine Biologist in the Philippines for a while. He describes so many sites that he has dove that would make me drool. As of now the only way to get to these sites is by private boat. It is a country of 7000 islands so for the diving community, Boracay isn't a loss. My sympathy to the Filipinos who make a living in the tourist industry in Boracay, they will be jobless during this shut down.

 

[bshort4]

Yes Boracay is mostly a beach destination but there are many many dive operations there mostly catering to the Discover Scuba crowd mainly from Korea. I went there about four years ago and it had been awhile since I last dived so I decided to stay at a dedicated dive hotel with its own dive operations and do a scuba review class and then some diving---my mistake. The hotel was located on Station 3 and had so many boats on the beach it was unsafe for swimming. Being a small dive hotel you would have thought someone would have asked me about diving---nope I was never approached once and after the first day of seeing them overload their banka boats with novice divers I scratched that idea off my list. Ended up in Dauin and did some wonderful dives at Apo Island. Here is a pic of Dive Gurus overloaded banka.

 

[Centrals]

The moron is taking a three days unofficial visit in HK. So while he and his cronies are enjoying themselves, 30,000 of his country men and women will be out of job for several months. Does he care? Definitely NOT.

 

[StefinSB]

The moron is taking a three days unofficial visit in HK. So while he and his cronies are enjoying themselves, 30,000 of his country men and women will be out of job for several months. Does he care? Definitely NOT.

But he can talk smack and oh do they love talking smack.