Over 11,000 rooms OK’d for Boracay

MANILA, Philippines — The number of accredited rooms in Boracay has breached the 11,000 mark, data from the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) showed.

In its latest Boracay bulletin, the BIATF said there are now a total of 316 compliant accommodation establishments with a total of 11,612 rooms.

Only establishments that have complied with the requirements of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) are allowed to operate in Boracay.

“More rooms will be available as we continue with Phase 2 and 3 of the Boracay rehabilitation. We are making sure the task force’s requirements are complied with 100 percent,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.

The task force urged the public not to book with establishments that have no permits from the DOT, DENR and DILG.

Before the island’s closure in April, Boracay had roughly 15,000 to 16,000 available rooms.

The government is limiting the number of tourists in Boracay to ensure the sustainability of the island, which was reopened in October after it was closed for rehabilitation for six months.

A study commissioned by the DENR showed that Boracay’s carrying capacity is only 55,757 people per day, including its residents. Only 19,215 tourists are allowed to be on the island at a given time, with 6,405 tourists allowed to enter the island per day.