Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Brief Background on Boracay


Boracay is a tropical island conveniently located at the northwestern tip of the Province of Aklan. It is a coral island with a total land area of 1,083 hectares. It is 7 kilometers long, 0.5 kilometers at its narrowest and 2 kilometers at its widest, laced with a beautiful stretch of beach 4-kilometer long that is known for its powdery white sand unequaled not only in the Philippines but anywhere else in the world.
Boracay is composed of 3 barangays of the Municipality of Malay with a local population of about 13,000 whose main source of livelihood is tourism. The island was declared a tourist zone in 1978 and tourism development has expanded rapidly since then.
Boracay is the Philippines’ major tourist destination. Tourist arrivals in 2005 was 499,457. The average yearly increase from 1998 to 2005 was about 20%. Local tourists accounted to 69% of arrivals in 2005 while foreign tourists consisted of 31% of arrivals. The influx of foreign tourist manifests an increasing trend since 2003, with Koreans registering the single largest nationality that visited the island, accounting to 65% of foreign tourists.
Getting to Boracay
Plane (Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit, and SEAIR)
Traveling by air via Kalibo / Caticlan is the fastest way to go to Boracay from Manila or Cebu. Travel time is about 35 minutes.
Asian Spirit and South East Asian Airlines have more than forty-five (45) flights daily from Manila to Caticlan and other routes.
Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific each has three (3) flights daily via Kalibo.
Soon, Air Philippines and Cebu Pacific will fly the Manila to Caticlan air route.
Sea Ferry
Via Dumaguit thru Negros Navigation and WGA Superferry. Travel time is about 12 hours. However, upon reaching Dumaguit, you still have to travel about 1½ to 2 hours by land before reaching Caticlan jetty port.
Land
The cheapest way to Boracay is the Roll-on/Roll-off (RORO) trips to Panay Island. Daily PhilTranco airconditioned or non-airconditioned buses leave to Panay via Caticlan. From Manila (by way of bus) to Batangas pier, travel time is about 2 to 3 hours depending on the traffic. Batangas to Calapan (by boat) takes 2 hours; another 2 hours (by bus) from Calapan to Roxas pier, then 4 hours (by boat) from Roxas pier to Caticlan jetty port.

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