Tourism could be limited in the Philippines

The Philippine government could set a capacity limit on the country’s major hotspots as they did in Boracay island.

Philippines.- The Philippine government continues to make changes to their tourism policy and could soon make a significant decision. As has already been done in Boracay island, the Rodrigo Duterte administration is considering setting up “capacity limits” on tourists in the major hotspots of the country.

The decision to look into the measure was made by President Duterte, who instructed the Department of Tourism (DOT), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to check the carrying capacity of all major tourist destinations.

“As mentioned in the State of the Nation Address and in our last Cabinet meeting, he already said that we have to look at other tourist destinations,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said last week as the 19.2k daily tourist limit for Boracay island was compared to the potential decision.

In Boracay’s case, the island was even closed in order to let the authorities conduct a clean-up of the area, which reopened with several restrictions. Among them, the prohibition of casinos from being built in the region, although there were already some projects close to land in Boracay.