boracay

PAPER 1.1

1. Trace the development of Boracay as tourism destination.

2. Create a timeline of the issues raised about Boracay Island from 1970's up to the present.

3. What were the measures used by the government and the provate sector to address each issue

about Boracay from the 1970's up to the present?

Trace the development of Boracay as tourism destination.

Boracay Island in the province of Aklan, Panay Island, is a boot-shaped island with an

area of 1,006.64 hectares (10.0664 sq. km). It is an island under the political jurisdiction of the

town of Malay, composed of three smaller units of government (called Barangays). It is part of

the Visayan group of islands in the Central Philippines.

According to geologists, Boracay’s physical environment comes from the uplifted

remnants of an ancient reef platform which covered the shallower areas of Sibuyan Sea. As the

uplifting and deposition of calcium carbonate continued, the continental shelves were formed

and two islets that used to be separate were joined together, forming the shape of Boracay Island.

Mangrove systems in the marshlands, tropical trees and plants that are habitats to endemic

animal species, rock formations developed from the tides, and coastal and marine environment,

comprise a biodiversity eco-system that is characteristic of the Philippine archipelagic and

marine systems.

The beaches on the island are laden with talcum-like white sands. The texture of the

sands was much finer, more powdery and whiter more than two decades ago. The marine life and

flora on the island, including inland marshlands, were very rich up to the early 1980s. The

pristine character of the whole island and the unique quality of the sands on its several beaches

were the primary motivation for travelers to visit the natural attraction. According to long-time

locals and the local indigenous people, the changes on the sands over the years began in the

1980s when tourism developments began to sprout. It was in the 1990s when the character of the

general physical make-up and the culture and subcultures of the people changed significantly.

From then on, urban development became rapid. Every inch of space, from the highest point of

the island, the inland waters on the hills and marshlands down to the low tide mark of the sea

have been claimed by various individuals and business owners, and eventually corporate

developers from the major cities in the country.Urban development on Boracay Island became

the priority for tourism for the past two decades which placed the Island on the list of the world’s

top tourism destinations. The original motivation for travelers to come to the island – the white

powder beaches, rich marine life and the serenity of the island – has been relegated to the

sidelines in the planning process. In the meanwhile, tourism industry in the country was boosted

significantly as Boracay became a brand – the best white sand beaches with the amenities and

activities of a developed city.

The Boracay experience is a case study for the ecotourism industry. On the aspect of

ecology, with all the tourism developments existing on the island, and still counting, the natural

contour and physical attributes of the island are experiencing stress. Boracay being the jewel

island of Philippine tourism is rapidly depleting its resources to cater to more and more

commercial tourist needs.The Boracay experience can also be considered a social experiment

because a society and culture of various nationalities in a small island setting is evolving – a

community of members who contribute their own cultures into a new society that is unique to

Boracay. About 25,000 residents are estimated to be residing on the island – a mixture of local

Aklanon, and the Filipino and non-Filipino expatriates – who have all become stewards of the

island in their own right.

There is a new opportunity to reflect on what Boracay used to be – nature and

environment at its best –and move forward to re-branding the island as a world-class ecotourism

destination and a home to the new stewards of the island, leaving a natural legacy for the future

generations to cherish. The challenge for Boracay is this: Can a rapid and unregulated urban

tourism development project that went wrong have the chance to reverse it through a united

island community and through the power of nature’s healing hands?

PAPER 1.2

BORACY TIMELINE FROM 1970’s – PRESENT

Let us travel back. A time when the world’s famous Boracay was still a virgin. Welcome to

1979.

BEFORE

BORACAY TODAY

Boracay was originally home to the Ati tribe. Boracay is part of Aklan Province, which

became an independent province on April 25, 1956.

Sofia Gonzales Tirol and her husband Lamberto Hontiveros Tirol, a town judge on nearby Panay

Island, took ownership of substantial properties on the island around 1900 and planted coconuts,

fruit trees, and greenery on the island. Others followed the Tirols, and cultivation and

development of the island gradually spread from this initial beginning.

Aguirre’s Place caretaker Mang Ome Bautista and his family, now the owners of Bans Beach

Resort.

Tourism came to the island beginning in about the 1970s. The movie Too Late the

Hero was filmed in 1970 on locations in Boracay and Caticlan. 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. 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

Boracay was an undiscovered white sand paradise beach until 1970. Legend has it that travellers

accidentally discovered the peaceful island when they were shooting a movie in the Philippines.

The movie crew shot images of the island and shared them with the world.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the Boracaynon--citizens of Boracay--depended largely on

fishing and coconut plantation crops. They traded copra, dried meat from coconuts, to

businessmen from Aklan--a Philippine province on the Sibuyan Sea-- in exchange for rice and

other food items and supplies.

On April 25, 1956, Boracay Beach became an independent province, part of the Aklan

Province of the Philippines.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Boracay became a popular vacation destination for families

from Panay, a nearby Philippine island. In 1978, German writer Jens Peters wrote a book about

Boracay's history and beauty that lured travelers to the "paradise lost" island. Filipinos tend to

mark this book as the beginning of the tourist boom in Boracay.

1980’s

In the 1980s, the island became popular with backpackers. Since then, Boracay has

gradually become a cosmopolitan tourism destination and, in the 21st century, has become one of

the major tourist destinations in the Philippines.

As early as the 1980s, national officials had begun worrying that this small island could

only take so many visitors at a time and that a comprehensive development plan needed to be

drawn up to ensure its environment would not be damaged by the tourist onslaught.

Before 1990, the supply of power to Boracay Island was low and irregular. Visitors held

candles and kerosene lamps to light their way around the island at night.

1990’s

In 1990, the Boracay Island Master Development Plan (BIMDP), an initiative of the

tourism department, was unveiled, and an inter-agency team was formed to implement it. The

next year, however, Republic Act 7610 or the Local Government Code was passed, devolving to

municipal and city governments the management of tourism areas and facilities. In Boracay's

case, this meant the municipality of Malay, Aklan.

The island has since become a case study of the ill effects of a having local government

dominated by the wealthy and the powerful, whose concerns usually do not extend beyond their

own personal interests. In Boracay, this has meant governance largely dictated by the wants of

resort owners, who count the mayor and vice mayor among them.

By 1997, the year the infamous coliform crisis erupted in Boracay, experts like urban

planner William Trousdale were lamenting the rapid deterioration of the island's environment.

He said the ground water quality of Boracay was already known to have exceeded its threshold

capacity as early as 1990 and blamed the coliform crisis on poor governance characterized by

favoritism and lack of political will.

That situation persists to this day. Francis Gentoral, program manager of the Toronto-

based Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) comments, "The fact that there is already saltwater

intrusion in the aquifers and that there is still human fecal pollution in the groundwater showed

that no significant solution was introduced to address the problems in Boracay after the 1997

coliform crisis." He adds, "Saltwater intrusion and pollution are indications of overdevelopment,

which has become very evident because of a high population density, especially in the developed

beach area." About 95 percent of Boracay's households and commercial establishments are

located in the island's approximately 80,000-square meter White Beach area. As of end-2001,

Boracay had 217 resorts. It has a resident population of about 12,000, but an average of 22,000

visitors also descend on the island each month.

The continued popularity of the island is welcomed by many people here, but obviously

not its overdevelopment. Hans Klent, a Swede who is on his fifth visit to Boracay, says, "They

build too many hotels here and I am afraid for that. It's too much developed."

What has taken place in Boracay is also far from what was envisioned in the BIMDP, which had

ought to ensure sustainable development for the island.

The plan projected the development of forest reserves (278.19 hectares), orchards (158

hectares), a nature reserve (11.24 hectares), marshlands, lagoons (71 hectares) and a golf course

(117.47 hectares). It also mandated that there could be no construction in places less than 25

meters from the mean high water line, the average of the high tide and the low tide. The plan set

height restrictions on buildings, a six-meter right-of-way for interior lots or developments, and a

development density of 60 percent of the total land area, leaving a 40 percent open space.

Alma Belejerdos, Malay's planning and development officer, describes the BIMDP as

"very idealistic and hard to implement" because some of its recommended land uses ignored

existing developments. Yet in 1990, the Malay municipal council of Malay adopted the zoning

regulations set in the BIMDP anyway, by enacting Ordinance No. 44.

Municipal officials now say though that after devolution, the zoning regulations were

ignored on the pretext that the ordinance was approved before the code was enacted and that new

validating ordinances must be passed. The Malay government also chose to ignore the BIMDP

guidelines after 1992, save for that on solid waste management.

It was only after the 1997 coliform scandal that the Malay municipal council decided to

adopt the other BIMDP guidelines and passed ordinances in accordance with these, including

one that regulates the construction of buildings and other structures on Boracay.

The enforcement of these ordinances, however, has been lax — if not altogether absent. Mayor

Ceciron Cawaling himself admits that he has found it difficult to enforce them because, he

reasons, he is just on his first term.

"Yung mga problema nag e-exist na yan before, so hindi ko naman pwedeng sagasaan

kaagad yan (Those problems have been existing before I became mayor, and I can't just run

roughshod over them outright)," he says. The way Cawaling sees it, he first needs to solve other

problems like the lack of a mooring area for pump boats serving the Boracay-Caticlan routes and

the need for pump boats for the Bantay Dagat and communication facilities for police outposts.

Aklan Board Member Jose Yap, Malay mayor from 1992 to 2001, says that during his

term, he had been very strict in implementing ordinances, particularly those banning pump boats

from mooring within 50 meters from the shore and motor vehicles from being driven on the

beach.

He adds that during his term, most resorts had voluntarily demolished structures found to

be in violation of the laws. But he admits that he sometimes accedes to requests by some resorts

to wait until the illegal structures become dilapidated before they are demolished.

Some Boracaynons are displeased with Yap, saying the former mayor had been both

selective and lenient in enforcing ordinances.

There now seems to be a prevailing attitude here that those who violate such ordinances

have little to worry about. Municipal engineer Elizer Casidsid, for instance, says that since

January 2002, at least 11 resorts have been found in violation of Ordinance 2000-131.

This ordinance limits buildings to three stories and mandates that only structures 150 meters

from the edge of the no-build zone are allowed the maximum height of 14 meters. The ordinance

also mandates a development density of 60 percent of the total land area, leaving 40 percent to

open space.

The penalty for violating the ordinance is a fine of P2,500 for owners and operators of

buildings and structures. Moreover, if the violation is not corrected three months following the

issuance of the third and final notice, the building or structure will be demolished. Contractors,

architects or engineers of the buildings found to have violations will also be fined P2,500 or be

imprisoned for six months.

But the ordinance's provisions are being questioned by some owners of resorts and other

business establishments who argue that the National Building Code does not limit the height of

the buildings and allows maximum use of a lot area. This may be why Club Panoly Resort has a

four-story building that is nearly finished. When asked to comment, though, its assistant resident

manager, Ramon Pacificar, said: "That building is not yet operational and it is too premature for

me to comment whether it has a violation or not."

Manoc-Manoc Barangay Captain Joel Gelito, for his part, has a unique argument why he

has all the right to have a four-story house. Gelito, who last October 15 received his third and

final notice regarding his violation of Ordinance 2000-131, says, "We are short people, so even if

the building is only 14 meters tall, it can be compressed in such a way that it will have four

floors."

Then there is Ordinance No. 96-97, which is the one that provides a 25-meter setback

from markers established by the Department of Tourism (DOT) in the late 1980s, plus a five-

meter additional setback from the edge of the "no-build area."

In 1999, the DOT also asked the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority

(NAMRIA) to establish new markers because the old ones were gone by then. Up to now,

however, the municipal council refuses to recognize the new markers because, says Vice Mayor

Floribar Bautista, they are not in the same location as the original markers.

He also says that the NAMRIA markers altered some of the no-build areas because they

were installed in a straight line, ignoring the beach's curvature. Some no-build areas widened

while others shrunk, thus allowing more development in the beachfront area, says Bautista.

Councilor and environment committee chair Dante Pagsugiron seconds this, saying that after the

markers were established, his committee found that some were located only about five meters

from the mean high water line and that NAMRIA failed to explain the discrepancy to them.

Lieutenant Commander Amante Caluya of NAMRIA retorts that the mean high water level in

Boracay was identified using the satellite-aided global positioning system, which he says is "very

accurate and it can never be questioned."

Political opposition members in Malay says the council is refusing to recognize the

NAMRIA markers because these shrink the no-build area in Barangay Balabag where Galaxy

Beach Resort and Bans Beach Resort — owned by Mayor Cawaling and Vice Mayor Bautista

respectively — are located, essentially allowing the owner of the property in front of the two

resorts to develop the area. Also to be affected are 30 other establishments.

Bautista, however, insists that he is opposed to the new markers because NAMRIA

"ignored the contour of the beach and placed the markers in a straight line," and not because he

fears development will be allowed in front of his resort.

Mayor Cawaling says he has no complaints about the new markers. But that has not

removed the impasse over them, putting the enforcement of Ordinance 96-97 in limbo.

All these have led people like environmental activist and artist Perry Argel to become frustrated

with Malay officials. "They are more concerned with stray dogs and the setback for the docking

of sailboats in the beach area than those that greatly affect the island like development setback

and density requirements," he grumbles.

Balabag Barangay Captain Glenn Sacapano says he misses the time when the DOT still

had an active role in the management of Boracay. He says the DOT was able to control

development because "they are not politicians and they have no interest to protect."

In July 2001, the DOT in Western Visayas had proposed the creation of the Boracay

Development Authority (BDA), which would have direct and active control over the

implementation of the BIMDP. The BDA's funding would come from fees collected from

business operators.

The DOT had apparently heeded the recommendations made by urban planner Trousdale

in a December 1997 study. Trousdale said there was a need for a new governance system in

Boracay, citing the effectiveness of innovative approaches in other places like Palawan.

Trousdale noted that Palawan could count on the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development,

a multisectoral and interdisciplinary body, which under the law is tasked with the

implementation and policy direction of a strategic environmental plan for the province. Another

example was Round Tables on the Environment and the Economy in Canada, a discussion group

where various sectors can reach a consensus on sustainability. But Aklan and Malay government

officials in Aklan do not want to lose any of their powers over Boracay. Governor Florencio

Miraflores says that if any authority is installed here, it should be within the control of the local

government unit, like the Chinatown Development Authority, which oversees development in

the Divisoria-Binondo area and is under the Manila city government. Mayor Cawaling says there

is no need for a governing body for Boracay because the provisions of the Local Government

Code are enough to ensure that the island is managed well. CUI's Gentoral suggests that in

creating a management body for Boracay, two lessons on governance approach must be

considered. He says that first, there is an observed fear of loss of municipal and barangay control

of Boracay. Second, he says, many powerful interests who routinely ignore the law might resent

the closer monitoring that is one of the purpose of the proposed authority.

Based on these, Gentoral thinks that any proposed management body for Boracay should

be composed of multiple stakeholders who would "reconcile the varied and conflicting visions

for Boracay under the framework of good governance, environmental responsibility and social

equity." Writing months after the coliform crisis here, Trousdale in his 1997 study said,

"Governance should be the issue on Boracay, and there will be no quick fix. Commitment to

effective and fair governance will require strong local political leadership and support from the

national agencies, improved government administration and commitment from all stakeholders." 

2000

In a Philippine GMA News TV article September of 2008, the Filipino Supreme Court

declared Boracay as state-owned land. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources

(DENR) reported that it would develop the island as a forest land. The move intends to control

commercial tourism developments and prevent further environmental deterioration.

PAPER 1.3

Boracay Island is located off the northwest corner of Panay Island, and belongs to

the Western Visayas island-group, or Region VI, of the Philippines. The island is approximately

seven kilometers long; dog-bone shaped with the narrowest spot being less than one kilometer

wide, and has a total land area of 10.32 square kilometers.

South-facing Cagban Beach is located across a small strait from the jetty port

at Caticlan on Panay Island, and the Cagban jetty port serves as Boracay's main entry and exit

point during most of the year. When wind and sea conditions dictate, east-facing Tambisaan

Beach serves as an alternative entry and exit point.

Boracay's two primary tourism beaches, White Beach and Bulabog Beach, are located on

opposite sides of the island's narrow central area. White Beach faces westward and Bulabog

Beach faces eastward. The island also has several other beaches.

White Beach, the main tourism beach, is about four kilometers long and is lined with

resorts, hotels, lodging houses, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses. In the central

portion, for about two kilometers, there is a footpath known as the Beachfront Path separating

the beach itself from the establishments located along it. North and south of the Beachfront Path,

beachfront establishments do literally front along the beach itself. Several roads and paths

connect the Beachfront Path with Boracay's Main Road, a vehicular road which runs the length

of the island. At the extreme northern end of White Beach, a footpath runs around the headland

there and connects White Beach with Diniwid Beach.

Bulabog Beach, across the island from White Beach, is the second most popular tourism

beach on the island and Boracay's mainwindsurfing and kite boarding area. Boracay is divided or

and use and conservation purposes into 400 hectares of preserved forestland and 628.96 hectares

of agricultural land.

PAPER 2

1. Last May 2, 2012 the DOT approved the new Accreditation Standards for hotels, resorts and

apartment hotels in the Philippines. The new standards adopted the star grading system. What are

the implications of this shift from the DeLuxe class, first class, standard class classifications to

the star grading system?

HOTEL CLASS

Findings of the study are limited to the selected hotels and electronic distribution

channels. Still, the distribution represents some of the most widely used electronic distribution.

The Accreditation Standards will be of use to hotel managers and guests for better understanding

the standard, in terms of star ratings, of hotels. Despite the importance of hotel star ratings on

consumers and the hotel industry, prior studies in the existing hospitality literature rarely

examined the difference of hotel stars. This novel study should, thus, make a meaningful

contribution to knowledge development.

Criteria used in hotel-rating systems focus on three aspects of the hotel experience. The

first is the foundation of most conventional-rating systems and focuses on the availability of

facilities and services. This may be referred to as objective-tangible criteria as they refer to

tangible services and facilities that can objectively be measured. The second area is referred to as

subjective-tangible criteria as they are tangible, but their assessment is often subject to personal

interpretation. Thirdly, there is the focus on the actual service delivery in the hotel as it is

experienced by the guest.

The satisfaction of guests does not, according to the guest reviews, depend on whether a

criterion is controlled through a rating system or not. Although the satisfaction in guest reviews

of subjective tangible criteria is low, service-delivery criteria in general and the empathy

dimension in specific, are most frequently mentioned positively whereas these areas are

controlled least by the rating systems analysed in this study

A hotel's star rating is an indicator of the general quality of a particular hotel, and is

wholly dependent on the data available to us. The descriptions below indicate what you should

be able to expect from a hotel in each of the star classes. These descriptions provide general data,

based on the many sources of information that go into our star rating. Circumstances such as on-

going renovations, overbooking, and specific guest needs can affect the quality of your stay. Star

ratings do not necessarily reflect all the amenities or services that might be available at a hotel,

and some amenities and features may not be available in every room or at every property with a

particular star rating. The features and amenities described here are often not available at holiday

rentals, apartments, inns, bed-and-breakfasts, and other speciality hotels.

PAPER 3

1. Research about the sub-regional (city/municipality) tourism plan of any municipality

(preferably Pasig or nearby cities/municipalities). What are the programs in the tourism plan?

How does it affect you as an HRM student and as future hoteliers and managers in the hospitality

industry?

The hospitality sector presents a variety of environmental aspects that, depending on the

activity, may have a significant impact on the environment. Its users are consuming resources

such as energy and water on a daily basis and generating a great deal of solid waste and

effluents. The hotel industry, banking sector and hospitals are examples of some of the sectors

that provide us with more information on this issue. This work discusses the main environmental

impacts generated by the hospitality sector and highlights the possible environmental strategies

that can lead to improvements in environmental management in this particular activity

It sometimes educates the public about the local environment and the importance of

protecting the environment. The tourism and hospitality industries often create employment and

business opportunities in an area, contributing to the local economy.

Hospitality and tourism buildings and venues are being designed and/or redesigned so that their

impact on the environment is reduced and they merge in with the local environment better.

Many enterprises are now employing more sustainable practices in order to promote a green

image that appeals to consumers, using organic products, recycling, using less toxic chemicals

and using more energy and water efficient fittings.

The presence of buildings and tourists may destroy the local environment and habitat of

native animals. The hospitality industry contributes to waste issues, food scraps, oil and chemical

disposal. Many hospitality venues are noisy. The hospitality and tourism industries consume a lot

of energy and water, electricity for air conditioning, refrigeration.