Aklan’s Tourism Is Now About A P4-Billion Peso Industry

Tourism continues to be an anchor industry of our province. By the end of last year, we nearly hit the half-a-million mark in terms of number of domestic and foreign visitors.
Total tourist arrivals for the year was 499,452. Some 155,739 of whom were foreign visitors and the remaining, some 343,714, were local tourists. Translated into tourism receipts, money which circulated into Aklan’s mainstream economy was estimated at P3.8 billion.
We have to prepare the province, particularly the resort island of Boracay for our projection of one million tourists by year 2010 and therefore all the needed infrastructure support facilities must be in place by then.
We have committed P1 million for the purchase of land ferry service (multicabs) for Boracay which maybe leased out to a transport cooperative in Malay to cater to the needs for transportation facilities of Boracay residents and workers at comparatively lower fare rate.
Once the one entry-one exit policy is enforced. We likewise appropriated P1 million to promote and market alternative tourist destinations of the province like the Manggad It Kalibo in the Mangrove Eco Park, the Bugna It Tangaean (Jawili Falls) and the Hurom-Hurom Cold Springs of the town of Nabas. We are also starting to market other town’s unique physical and natural tourism assets like Libacao, Madalag, New Washington, and up to Buruanga.