BORACAY, PHILIPPINES – The vaccination of tourism workers on Boracay Island received a boost on Monday (July 26) with the arrival of an additional 10,000 doses of Sinovac anti-Covid vaccines as local tourist arrivals in the world-famous island picked up.
The vaccination program is being undertaken by the Department of Tourism (DOT) in partnership with the National Task Force (NTF) on Covid-19 and the municipal government of Malay, Aklan.
The vaccination started Monday afternoon at the CityMall Boracay.
“Last July 7, I was with our Deputy Chief Implementer and testing czar, Secretary Vince Dizon, for the ceremonial vaccination of tourism workers in Boracay. Today, we are glad to report that the 10,000 doses of Sinovac will benefit 6,500 tourism frontliners in the island.”, Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said.
Of the 10,000 doses, around 3,000 doses will be administered as second doses for the initial 3,000 tourism workers while the remaining 7,000 doses are allocated for the first and second doses of another 3,500 tourism workers.
Out of the additional 3,500 tourism workers in Boracay who will get their full vaccination through the DOT’s initiative, around 2,230 individuals are employed in accommodation establishments, 551 in restaurants, 397 in dive shops, spas, travel and tours, souvenir shops, jetty ports and other essential service providers, 142 in tourism-related cooperatives, 105 in the transport sector, and 76 in government frontline service including tourist police, immigration staff, and rehabilitation management group.
Puyat stressed that the DOT’s goal is to vaccinate all 11,620 tourism workers on the island, especially with the holiday season fast approaching.
“I am very happy to see that more and more tourism workers in Boracay are getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and are able to return to their livelihood with confidence. We in the DOT remain grateful to all of our partners, including the private sector,” Puyat said.
She cited in particular the Filinvest Hospitality through Crimson Resort and Spa Boracay for donating 5,000 vaccine doses to support the program. The Megaworld Corporation, through the Belmont Hotel Boracay and Savoy Hotel Boracay, has pledged to donate an additional 5,000 doses of vaccines.
“We continue to enlist the support of private sector stakeholders to do the same so that we can inoculate more tourism workers and spur the tourism industry’s recovery at a faster rate,” the tourism chief said.
Puyat had earlier disclosed that the DOT will soon launch new tourism products for Boracay Island which are expected to attract more visitors. They include Boracay Biking Tour, Boracay Food Crawl, and the Boracay Wellness Workation Program.
Based on local government data, a total of 29,660 tourists arrived in Boracay through Caticlan from July 1 to 25, with 65.08 percent or 19,305 arrivals coming from the National Capital Region (NCR). This was followed by visitors from Region 4A (Calabarzon) with 6,374 tourists, and Region 3 (Central Luzon) with 2,213.
