Philippine resort island once dubbed a ‘cesspool’ reopens to tourists

Boatloads of tourists have sailed to a Philippine island which has reopened to visitors after a six-month closure to clean waters the president called a “cesspool” due to years of overcrowding, partying and neglect.

Officials on Boracay island, in central Aklan province, have imposed new rules to regulate the influx of visitors and beach parties, decongest resorts and prevent sewage from being discharged directly into the turquoise waters.

Only a portion of Boracay’s hotels and other businesses have reopened under the new rules, and a fraction of more than 20,000 workers who lost their jobs have been rehired.

“Let us treat the island as our home. Keep it clean and pristine. Don’t drink alcohol or smoke in the beach, don’t litter,” tourism secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said in a message to incoming tourists.

Cabinet officials and local celebrities attended a ceremony to mark Boracay’s “soft opening” on a white sand beach near a port where ferries unloaded tourists.

German tourist Lora Hoerhammer, among the first foreign visitors to set foot on the spruced-up island, backed the six-month closure.

“We said wow, that is a good thing to really close the whole environment so that nature can rest for a second and people can clean up everywhere,” the 27-year-old German said.

“Everybody will be able to come back and feel … that it’s a better place for everybody.”

Only 157 of Boracay’s hundreds of hotels, inns, restaurants and souvenir shops have reopened after complying with the regulations, including connecting to authorised sewer pipes and maintaining a 30-metre distance from the ocean.

Gil delos Santos, whose family owns a 10-room inn called Roy’s Rendezvous, a travel agency and passenger ferries, welcomed Boracay’s reopening.

“The weather is good and the water is so clear. This is the best way to welcome a better Boracay,” said the 42-year-old. “It’s like Boracay got a reboot.”

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Boracay shut in February for rehabilitation and said the waste being discharged into the sea had made its waters a “cesspool”.

During the closure, authorities discovered a hidden sewage pipe discharging waste directly into the coastal waters, and two hotels built on restricted wetlands.

Some resorts were demolished because they had encroached into a no-build area fronting the sea — one of many violations that had been unchecked for years in one of the country’s top tourist draws.

A mayor was suspended and 16 other officials faced complaints of neglect of duty over Boracay’s deterioration.

More than two million tourists visited Boracay last year to enjoy its sandy beaches, spectacular sunsets and festive nightlife, generating about 56 billion pesos (£815 million) in revenue, but the influx and neglect threatened to turn it into a “dead island” in less than a decade, according to a government study.