Boracay (; sometimes shortened by non-natives as Bora) is a resort island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines, located off the northwest coast of Panay Island. It has a total land area of , under the jurisdiction of three barangays in Malay, Aklan, and had a population of 37,802 in 2020.
Boracay was originally inhabited by the Panay Bukidnon and Ati people, but commercial development has led to their severe marginalization since the 1970s.
Apart from its white sand beaches, Boracay is also famous for being one of the world's top destinations for relaxation. , it was emerging among the top destinations for tranquility and nightlife.
International travel magazine Travel + Leisure ranked Boracay as the Best Island in the World in 2012. In 2014, the resort island was at the top of the "Best Islands in the World" list published by the international magazine Condé Nast Traveler. In 2016, Boracay headed the magazine's list of "Top 10 destinations to watch".
In April 2018, the Philippine government, under President Rodrigo Duterte, decreed a six-month closure of the island for tourists to undertake major renovation works, especially of the sewage system, which had become obsolete and insufficient. The island was administered by the Boracay Inter-agency Task Force during the closure. It reopened in October 2018, with a new set of rules meant to address a variety of issues, and help control tourist growth in the future. Under the new rules, the Boracay beachfront was cleared of masseuses, bonfires, beach vendors and sunset bonfires. Buildings were bulldozed and beach businesses set back to create a 30-metre buffer zone from the waterline.
The Boracay Ati-atihan in January 2024 witnessed a record-breaking number of tourists, with 36,741 people participating in the event. This festival, which celebrates the cultural heritage of the Ati indigenous people, has been a major draw for tourists and is set to be elevated as a major tourism attraction for the island starting in 2025.
Etymology The name Boracay is attributed to different origins. The first one that came from the Ati people says that the name of the island came from the Inati words "bora", meaning bubbles, and "bocay", meaning white. Another theory suggests that the name is derived from the local word 'borac,' which means 'white cotton,' referencing the color and texture of Boracay's white, sugary, and powdery sand.Historically Digitized, Ro Isla it Buruanga. Yet another version dating back to the Spanish era says the name is derived from "sagay", the word for a shell, and "boray", the word for seed.
The island is sometimes referred to as simply "Bora" by outsiders for convenience. However locals including tourism stakeholders have highly discouraged the use of the name which is widely considered to be derogatory or disrespectful. Among the reasons include to distinguish Boracay from the island of Bora Bora of the French Polynesia.
The municipal government of Malay passed an ordinance in February 2011, mandating its municipal licensing office to refuse licenses to businesses seeking to operate under a name including "Bora" rather than "Boracay". Usage of the diminutive is also prohibited in promotional materials and business activities.
History Pre-colonial history Before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in the 16th century, Boracay was populated by Ati people. It was known to the Iberians as Buracay. At the time of contact with the Europeans, Buracay had a population of one hundred people, who cultivated rice on the island and augmented their income by raising goats.Miguel de Loarca, Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas (Arevalo: June 1782) in Blair, Emma Helen & Robertson, James Alexander, eds. (1903). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1803. Volume 05 of 55 (1582–1583). Historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne. Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark Company. . OCLC 769945704. "Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century.", p. 75.
The Tumandok people also established an indigenous presence on the island, although the identities of the two indigenous peoples is often conflated. A 1905 report by the Philippine Commission documented the continuing presence of both groups on the island. referred to there as "Buracay".
Archeological-wise and Historiographical-wise Boracay island was at the cross-roads of maritime shipping between the rival Philippine Port-Kingdoms of the Kedatuan of Madja-as (ᜋᜇ᜔ᜌ᜵ ᜀᜐ᜔), the nation of Sandao (三洲), and Buddhist Ma-i (ᜫᜡ), which most likely made Boracay a lively naval route, trading spot, but also battlefield among the three kingdoms.
The Kedatuan of Madja-as including the datus of Capiz and Aklan where Boracay neighbors, often raided Luzon and Mindoro in the north; the locations of the kingdoms of Tondo and Ma-i that there is an old Visayan saying: “sa diin timo nangayaw nga mait” which translates as “did you raid (pangayaw) up north (mait)?” but actually means “where have you been?”, as a memory of Panay raids against the kingdoms of Mindoro and Luzon.Ian Christopher B. Alfonso, “Kapampangans Versus Visayans: The Pintados Regularly Pillaged Coastal Towns in Pampanga and Western Luzon,” Singsing 6, no. 1 (c.2012), 27.
Colonial Era and Post-Independence era history Administration under Ibajay and Buruanga Boracay, as well as the rest of Aklan, was previously part of the province of Capiz. It was under the jurisdiction of the municipality of Buruanga itself ruling over the town of Ibajay which was the intermediary for Buracay (Historical spelling of Boracay) and its surroundings at Northwestern Panay island.
The 1818 census shows that there were 1,268 native families and also a relatively decent number of 30 Spanish-Filipino families that also lived in Ibajay, Malay and also Boracay.
Introduction of Plantation Agriculture (1910s) Before the advent of tourism, Boracay was largely an agricultural community. Around 1910, Sofía Gonzáles Tirol and her husband Lamberto Hontiveros Tirol (a town judge on the Panay mainland) took ownership of substantial properties on the island. They planted coconuts, fruit trees and greenery. Others followed the Tirols, and cultivation and development of the island gradually spread.
Establishment of Malay and Aklan Buruanga continued to administer Boracay until the municipality of Malay was established on June 15, 1949.
The municipality, as well as the island, became part of Aklan, which became an independent province on April 25, 1956.Our Province Aklan Historical Background (archived from [ the original] on May 29, 2014), The Provincial Government of Aklan Official Website supports assertion that Boracay is part of Aklan and creation date of Aklan province -->
During the Marcos dictatorship Displacement of the Boracay Ati people (1978 onwards)
On Nov. 10, 1978, six years after the declaration of Martial Law under Ferdinand Marcos, 65 Philippine islands including Boracay was declared "tourist zones and marine reserves" without any mention of the status of the Ati who were the original residents of the island.https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/997554/boracay-rehab-magnifies-land-ownership-issue
The de facto dispossession of Ati lands on Boracay by Marcos placed the islands under the control of the Philippine Tourism Authority, and marked the beginning of rapid development on the island. In turn, this resulted in the further marginalization of the Boracay Ati for decades.https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/artandculture/313920/beyond-the-beach-the-untold-story-of-boracay-s-ati-tribe/story/
Decline of plantations and fishing industry (1970s)
The production of copra and fishing were major industries in the island. However, due to overharvesting by fishers and the destruction of coral reefs due to cyanide fishing during this era, the fishing industry saw a decline. By the 1980s, the price of copra had declined, encouraging tourism as an alternative source of income for the island.
Early developments in tourism (1970s) Tourism came to the island beginning sometime in the 1970s. In 1970, the movies Nam's Angels (released in the U.S. as The Losers) and Too Late the Hero used filming locations on Boracay and Caticlan.As a filming location Filming locations for Too Late the Hero (1971), Internet Movie Database.
The mid-1970s also saw the purchase of lands in Boracay by Fred Elizalde of the Basque-Hispanic Elizalde family, which had made its fortunes from sugar holdings in Negros and Tanduay distillery in Manila, and whose brother Manuel was head of the Presidential Assistant on National Minorities. Their properties would later play a big role in Boracay's conversion into a tourist-oriented economy.Baleva, M. K. A. (2018). The Ati community of Boracay Island. In Regaining Paradise Lost: Indigenous Land Rights and Tourism (pp. 234–272). https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004376786_008
In 1978, there was an influx of Western tourists after German writer Jens Peter called it "paradise on Earth" in his book about the Philippines.
Later 20th and early 21st Century Increasing popularity (1980s and 1990s)
In the 1980s, the island became popular as a budget destination for backpackers. By the 1990s, Boracay's beaches were being acclaimed as the best in the world. However, in 1997, tourist arrivals to the resort island dropped 60 percent due to the increase of coliform bacteria from poor sewage and septic systems on the island.
Infrastructure development (Late 1990s)
The condition of Boracay in 1997 led to the installment of a potable water supply system, a sewage treatment plant and a solid waste disposal system, operated by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA). The connection of businesses and households to the system was not universal, and environmental problems persisted.
Contemporary history Establishment of Tourism Zone Then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared Boracay a Special Tourism Zone in 2005, and in April 2006 she gave the PTA administrative control over the island while mandating the agency to coordinate with the provincial government of Aklan.
In 2012, the Philippine Department of Tourism reported that Boracay had been named the world's second best beach after Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
2018 closure and rehabilitation
Due to worsening environmental conditions in Boracay, President Rodrigo Duterte in February 2018 said he planned to close the resort island, which he described as a "cesspool", on April 26, 2018, instructing Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu to resolve the issue. In a cabinet meeting, President Duterte approved the full closure of the island for six months, effective April 26, 2018, to rehabilitate and resolve the environmental issues surrounding Boracay. On May 30, 2018, President Duterte declared that he planned to make the entire Boracay a land reform area and wanted to first prioritize the island's residents.
In April 2018, the Philippine Army's 301st Infantry Brigade confirmed that 200 soldiers were deployed to Boracay to secure the island during its shutdown starting April 26.
On October 26, 2018, Boracay was reopened to the public with work on the island's infrastructure still in progress. In April 2019, numerous Chinese-owned businesses were opened in Boracay, and additionally, there are about 300 mainland Chinese residents. In April 2019, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that the Department of Labor and Employment has no control over foreign businesses setting up shop on the island, but that it vows to ensure that no Chinese national could take jobs fit for Filipinos.