La régulation des flux touristiques avec l'exemple de Boracay (Philippines)
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La régulation des flux touristiques avec l’exemple de
Boracay (Philippines)
http://www.francesoir.fr/actualites-societe-lifestyle/les-philippines-ferment-boracay-leur-ile-paradisiaque-souillee
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Par Dayanetang — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10197318
By Alexey Komarov, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60577271
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16 janvier 2018
By Joey Razon for Philippine News Agency - Philippine News Agency, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65821973
Synthèse du rédacteur (recherches diverses) :
Boracay, petite île de l'archipel des Visayas dont les plages sont régulièrement
classées par certains magazines de voyage comme les plus belles au monde, ne
mesure que 10,3 kilomètres carrés et compte déjà plus de 33 000 habitants
(2018). Mais elle était à certaines périodes fréquentée par 40 000 touristes en
même temps.
Des policiers lourdement armés avaient procédé jeudi 26 avril 2018 à la fermeture
pour six mois de Boracay, l'une des îles les plus courues des Philippines, victime du
tourisme de masse et devenue d'après le président Duterte une "fosse septique".
Sa fermeture controversée devait permettre de nettoyer le site et de construire
en particulier des unités de traitement des eaux usées.
Selon le ministère philippin de l'Environnement, 195 commerces et 4 000
particuliers de l'île ne sont pas connectés aux réseaux d'égouts.
Seuls les habitants pouvant produire une carte d'identité ont pu durant cette
période monter à bord des ferries desservant Boracay.
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Le nombre de visiteurs a quadruplé depuis 2006, pour atteindre deux millions en
2017 ; ces touristes, parmi lesquels un nombre croissant de Chinois – 18,7% – et
de Coréens – 17,8% du total – , ont injecté environ un milliard de dollars dans
l'économie de l'archipel.
Les Philippines ont permis à nouveau vendredi 26 octobre 2018 aux touristes de
fouler les plages paradisiaques de l’île mais avec un certain nombre de restrictions
ou d’interdictions.
A la suite de l’interdiction de six mois, le nombre de touristes s’est élevé à 930 363
en 2018 (en baisse de 53% par rapport à 2017).
Six mois après, Boracay compte moins d'hôtels et de restaurants, ainsi qu'un
quota de visiteurs autorisés (ne pouvant dépasser 19 125 par jour, quota que les
autorités comptent faire respecter en contrôlant notamment l'offre hôtelière de
l'île) et de nouvelles réglementations interdisent le tabac et l'alcool sur les plages,
afin de ramener de l'ordre sur son littoral. Le gouvernement a également chassé
du littoral les cracheurs de feu, masseuses, vendeurs ambulants, chiens errants et
même les bâtisseurs de châteaux de sable emblématiques de l'île. Des
constructions sauvages ont été rasées pour créer une servitude de passage de
bord de mer large de 30 mètres.
Les autorités contrôlent aussi le trafic des paquebots depuis le 16 avril 2019.
Ceux qui dépassent les 2 000 croisiéristes ne peuvent y faire escale. Des
destinations alternatives sont proposées qui comprennent Iloilo et Bacolod dans la
région, Subic, Bataan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur dans le nord de Luçon, Bohol (port
de Tagbilaran) dans les Visayas centrales.
L’île sera fermée à plusieurs reprises pour éviter un afflux à l’occasion de fêtes ou
d’événements. Ainsi, en 2019, des fermetures auront lieu du 24 avril au 31 mai,
pendant les vacances de Toussaint (Les Philippines sont le plus grand pays
catholique d’Asie) du 26 octobre au 8 novembre ; pendant la durée des Jeux
d'Asie du Sud-Est (en anglais, Southeast Asian Games ou SEA Games) du 23
novembre au 19 décembre ainsi que pendant les fêtes de Noël et du nouvel an du
20 décembre au 5 janvier 2020. L’île avait été fermée à l’occasion du nouvel an
chinois du 29 janvier au 12 février et pendant la Semaine sainte du 16 au 23 avril.
Les Jeux d'Asie du Sud-Est (en anglais, Southeast Asian Games ou SEA Games) sont une compétition
multisports organisée tous les deux ans en Asie du Sud-Est depuis 1959. 11 pays prennent part à
cette compétition. La Fédération des Jeux d'Asie du Sud-Est est l’organisatrice des jeux supervisés
par le Comité international olympique et le Conseil Olympique d'Asie. Les Philippines organisent les
jeux pour la quatrième fois en 2019.
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La ministre philippine du Tourisme, Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, a espéré que cette
"nouvelle" Boracay marque l'avènement d'une "culture du tourisme durable" aux
Philippines.
La ministre a dit avoir adressé par écrit des avertissements à d'autres lieux très
prisés de l'archipel, comme El Nido, dans le nord de l'île de Palawan, ou l'île de
Panglao. Certains sites, comme celui d'Oslob dans le sud de Cebu, connu pour ses
activités de nourrissage de requins baleines, ont pris les devants en réduisant leur
fréquentation touristique.
Philippines’ Boracay Island Tackles Overtourism With Bans on
Cruise Ships in Peak Seasons
Maria Stella F. Arnaldo, Skift
- Apr 25, 2019 8:00 am
Skift Take
Philippines’ Boracay shows a good example of how to regulate potential overcrowding by cruise
ships. The idea to offer alternative ports of call is smart, as it promotes new destinations and
spreads tourism benefits to other places.
— Maria Stella F. Arnaldo
5The Philippine government has started regulating cruise ship visits to Boracay Island in a bid
to ease the pressure of tourist numbers on its environment.
Cruise ships are barred during peak tourist seasons, and those with a capacity of more than
2,000 passengers have been prohibited from making port calls on the island to curb
overtourism. Alternative destinations are being offered instead.
Closeout periods will be this spring from April 24 to May 31; All Saints/All Souls Day
holiday break from October 26 to November 8; during the Southeast Asian Games from
November 23 to December 19; and during Christmas and New Year’s from December 20 to
January 5, according to Arturo P. Boncato Jr., Philippine Department of Tourism’s (DoT)
undersecretary for coordination and resource generation.
Cruise ships were also earlier banned from Boracay during Chinese New Year this year from
January 29 to February 12, and the recent Holy Week from April 16 to 23.
Boracay was closed for six months from April 26 last year to make way for the government’s
rehabilitation effort. Tourist arrivals on the island dropped 53 percent to 930,363 last year
from two million in 2017, as per DoT’s data.
Alternative destinations
In a separate interview, DoT’s regional director for Western Visayas, Helen J. Catalbas, said
cruise ships may go to alternative destinations during the closeout periods. These include
Iloilo and Bacolod in the region, Subic, Bataan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon,
and Bohol (Tagbilaran Port) in Central Visayas.
The Western Visayas region is where Boracay, a municipality of the province of Aklan, is
located.
She added the rule to prohibit cruise ships with over 2,000 passengers to call on Boracay was
effective from April 16. “The new policy guidelines are aligned with the Boracay Inter-
Agency Task Force efforts to regulate port calls [in] adherence to the carrying capacity of the
island. DoT believes that residents and visitors could enjoy Boracay Island for the longest
time through the cooperation of everyone in promoting sustainable tourism,” said Catalbas.
A study commissioned last year by the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural
Resources indicated that Boracay’s ecosystem can only support 19,125 tourists at any given
time.
The regulations have not deterred Dream Cruises, a unit of Hong Kong-based Genting Cruise
Lines, from selling trips that include the Philippines.
Cruise Lines Adjust
In an interview via email, Thatcher Brown, president of Dream Cruises, said: “We are aware
of the latest advisory from the Philippines regarding the capacity limitations for cruise ships
entering Boracay. For Dream Cruises, World Dream has a capacity of 3,400 passengers
[lower berth], which exceeds this limit.”
6He noted that the Philippine government issued a similar advisory last December, prohibiting
cruise ships to Boracay, “and since then, Dream Cruises has revised World Dream’s Boracay
itineraries in the first quarter of 2019 to other alternative destinations including Subic Bay and
Japanese ports of call. World Dream is the only ship with planned itineraries to the
Philippines in our fleet.”
Brown said Dream Cruises will continue to communicate with the relevant authorities for the
most updated information regarding the cruise ship guidelines and make necessary changes if
required.
“We support the government’s initiative to rehabilitate Boracay’s environment so that
everyone can enjoy the beauty of Boracay in the future,” he said.
According to the company’s website, its sister cruise ship Genting Dream will also be sailing
to Puerto Princesa in Palawan as part of its cruise departing Singapore on June 9. It’s offering
a 20-night cruise around Australia and Asia, departing Sydney on March 1, 2020, which
includes port calls in Coron Island in Palawan and the Philippines’ capital city, Manila.
Data from Caticlan Jetty Port shows four cruise ships making port calls on Boracay on
separate occasions this year: Windstar Cruises’ Star Legend on February 27 with 246
passengers; Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Navigator on March 4 with 384 passengers; Hapag-
Llyod’s Europa on March 22 with 300 passengers; and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’
Voyager of the Seas on April 10 with 2,853 passengers, and on April 15, with 3,334
passengers, a day before the maximum 2,000 passengers limit was enforced.
Caticlan is considered the gateway to Boracay, only 15 minutes away by ordinary pump
boats.
Islanders Continue to Protest
Local stakeholders and residents continue to oppose cruise ship calls at Boracay.
Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Elena Brugger said: “We continue to
be against cruise ships. We don’t want [them] due to environmental issues.”
She added, “There are no proper ports and no proper facilities for these cruise ships. They just
create traffic at the port every time they are here.”
Cruise ships visiting Boracay usually drop anchor at the Caticlan jetty port.
“The government should definitely clamp down on cruise ships, especially to tiny, fragile
islands such as Boracay,” said writer and publicist Freida Dario-Santiago, who moved to
Boracay from Manila in 2003. “We are not a city! I don’t know about the actual numbers and
the carrying capacity of the island when these cruise ships arrive, but one thing’s for sure,
traffic congestion along the roads and beaches is shoulder-to-shoulder, garbage is
overflowing, public transportation is hijacked to cater to the sheer volume of visitors, and yet
local businesses don’t benefit from all this chaos, and we are left to clean up after their mess.”
She added, “Then there’s the issue of the environmental impact of these ships — air pollution,
carbon emissions, water, oil pollution, and the risk of oil spills — I doubt we have the
7facilities to counter such a catastrophe. Do we know where and how they dislodge their
wastes? Cruises may be dumping fuel and human waste into the ocean, for all we know, and
the larger cruise ships are essentially floating cities, and many of them produce as much
pollution as one [city].”
But Megan Barber King, senior vice president for global strategic communications and
research for the Cruise Lines International Association in Washington, D.C., asserted that
cruise ships do benefit a destination’s economy. She told Skift in an email, “While we have
no specific figures for Boracay, cruising generated $126 billion in economic output in 2017,
supporting thousands of local businesses and suppliers.”
“Cruising,” she added, “has taken a leadership role in working with destinations to develop
solutions that enhance sustainability. In many places, including the Pacific region, our cruise
lines have worked with local people to develop offerings for cruise passengers that benefit the
local economy and protect resources and heritage.”
She underscored that cruise lines are also able to help destinations in tourism planning “due to
its predictability.”
“Cruise lines are able to predict months in advance how many passengers will arrive, how
long they will stay, and when they will leave,” she pointed out.
Tags: boracay, cruising, overtourism
SKIFT - https://skift.com/2019/04/25/philippines-boracay-island-tackles-overtourism-with-bans-on-cruise-ships-in-peak-seasons/?utm_campaign=Early%20Time%20Zone%20-
%20Skift%20Daily%20Newsletter&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=72107510&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8OPsITFmxJ0KTy54cn7jkebHGOG-
weoRYVotwuXQNHs7EZyTpFV52WzPmES9yLF2irn2rVp0KmiEvYM-c7ZvhmkXGzcCVf902enZE7Vf5eFsx7ofg&_hsmi=72107510
Jean-Paul Tarrieux le 26/04/2019
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