2018 Boracay closure and redevelopment 2018 Boracay closure and redevelopment The closure of the Philippine resort island of Boracay, one of the nation's major tourist destinations, was set for six months starting April 26, 2018 as part of the government's efforts at the island's environmental rehabilitation. As part of the closure, Boracay would be closed except to registered island residents and employees of its business establishments. In a business forum held in February 9, 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte called the island of Boracay a "cesspool" and announced plans to close the island to tourists and conduct a rehabilitation on the island in June 2018 to
2018 Boracay closure and redevelopment claimed that the animal is a normal occurrence in Boracay. It criticized the government for using the sighting as a metric for the rehabilitation. The government in June 2018 announced that it is developing the Ati people's ancestral land in Boracay into an agro-tourism area in an effort to integrate the Ati in the island's tourism industry. The development is part of the Department of Agriculture's "Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran ng Kababayang Katutubo" (; 4Ks) program which was conceptualized by the department's secretary Emmanuel Piñol. A greenhouse will be set up for vegetable cultivation and a goat farm for the production