The world-renowned Boracay Island will be visited by around 1,800 foreign tourists aboard the Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas Cruise ship on October 27.
This is the first time that Region 6 will be visited by the Royal Caribbean cruise ship and, “There are only two ports of calls in the Philippines, the Port of Manila and Boracay in Aklan province,” Director Helen J. Catalbas of the Department of Tourism (DOT-6) said.
“Boracay is getting to be popular to the cruising community that is why it already has bookings until 2014 for cruise ships’ visit,” Catalbas said during the press conference with the Iloilo media.
The Royal Carribean cruise ship will drop anchor in an area near Boracay Island and its passengers will be transported through pontoon.
“Pontoon is some kind of a floating device or bridge where the tourists will pass through to the wharf,” said Catalbas as she pointed out that from that point tourists will be ushered to their respective interests of activities in Boracay, such as boating, surfing, visiting local restaurants, shopping and many others.
The tourists will only have three hours to enjoy the fun and beauty of the region’s paradise island and then they will be off for other Asian countries.
Building a pontoon is “quite an expensive investment on the part of the provincial government, but since Boracay is included in the ports of call for the foreign cruise ships therefore it is worth an investment,” the DOT-6 director said.
Boracay’s visitor arrivals from January to September 2012 were recorded at 999,985, Catalbas said as she expressed the people of Aklan’s excitement in relation to the arrival of the Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
(Story courtesy of Vicente W. Villavert – Philippine Information Agency)
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