Aklan confident of reaching 1.5 million tourists for 2013

The Aklan provincial government together with the Department of Tourism (DOT)-Boracay said Thursday that from January to April this year, the resort island continues to lure foreign tourists with the increasing arrivals from South Korea and China.
From January to April, a total of 519,562 foreign and local tourists had already visited Boracay or a 60 percent increase from last year's figure.
Tourists from East Asian countries continue to dominate Boracay with South Koreans registering 64,311 followed by China with 56,994. A total of 26,228 Taiwanese tourists were recorded to have visited the island in the same month, followed by Russians with 8,973 and the USA with 7,759.
"We believe that the problem with Taiwan is only temporary since the national government is doing everything to iron out the conflict. Despite the travel ban of the Taiwanese government, we are still receiving several Taiwanese nationals as 'walk-ins' to Boracay," said Tim Ticar, acting head of the DOT-Boracay.
The DoT had recorded at least 10 Taiwanese tourists who came to this resort island on May 22 alone. The number of Taiwanese tourists has tremendously dropped with the cancellations of direct flights from Taipei to Kalibo International Airport.
"We consider Taiwanese tourists important for our economy and tourism. Yet, if we survived the travel ban imposed by China last year, we may survive these threats coming from Taiwan. Hope, the Taiwan-Philippines conflict will soon end," said Ticar.
Earlier, the Inside Investor (Investvine), a global company that provides information for investments, estimates that Boracay may lose US$ 55.3 million with the absence of the Taiwanese group.