The Phillipes: Boracay tourism operators scramble as President Duterte’s shutdown looms

The Philippine tourism industry scrambled on Friday to manage the fallout from the temporary shutdown of its world-famous Boracay island, which threw into chaos trips planned by hundreds of thousands of tourists. President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the once-idyllic white-sand resort closed to tourists for up to six months from April 26, after describing the country’s top tourist attraction as a “cesspool” tainted by raw sewage. Checkpoints manned by police or soldiers will be set up at piers to turn away visitors. Hundreds of Boracay hotels, as well as restaurants, tour operators and business establishments were on Friday unwinding bookings for rooms, flights, weddings and other events and facilities. “Some people are cursing us … it’s nasty,” said Hotel Sales and Marketing Association president Christine Ibarreta. Ibarreta said “hundreds of thousands” of bookings made as far as two years in advance – potentially worth millions of dollars for hotels and other tourism services – would have to be either cancelled and refunded, or rebooked. Domestic airlines announced on Thursday they would scale back the number of flights to the jumping-off point for the 1,000-hectare island.<br/>