(Time) Boracay is among the finest of the 7,641 Philippine islands and, for a long time, was one of the least known, its four square miles a closely guarded secret. Sequestered in the center of the archipelago, the island’s pristine beaches and gin-clear waters were the refuge of the handful of native Ati inhabitants—until the rest of the world caught on.
Too Late the Hero, a 1970 American war film shot on Boracay with big name stars Michael Caine and Henry Fonda, is credited with sparking international interest in the stunning location. The ensuing trickle of curious backpackers became a flood in 1979, after a German travel author, Jens Peters, published his definitive Philippines Travel Guide and proclaimed Boracay a “paradise.” Just over a decade later, the Tropical Beach Handbook—a Michelin-style compendium sponsored by automaker BMW—hailed Boracay beach as the best in the world.
Naturally, such recognition came at a price. From a community that didn’t even have electricity until 1992, Boracay rapidly turned into an international party hub, its shoreline crammed with dusk-till-dawn bars and clubs.
In 2019, the year before the pandemic brought travel to a halt, some two million tourists visited Boracay, pumping around $1 billion into the tiny island. But over the years, tourism also generated enormous problems, particularly with garbage and sewage disposal. Raw sewage was being pumped into the sea and broken glasses, bottles, and plastic cups littered the shoreline. Things got so bad that President Rodrigo Duterte called the island a “cesspool” and banned tourists for six months in 2018 so that a cleanup could take place… Read More
