Will you be among the thousands heading to Boracay for the Labor Day weekend? Share, tweet, and post about your summer experience, a tourism official said.
Department of Tourism Western Visayas Director Atty. Helen Catalbas and Smart Prepaid Head Joel Lumanlan encouraged the thousands of visitors expected in Boracay to share their experiences online to help promote the island.
An estimated 75,000 visitors are expected in Boracay over the Labor Day weekend from May 1 to 3, triple the number of visitors on regular summer weekends.
Share your summer story
“Online social networking apps and sites have made it easier for us to reach out to anyone from around the world, and we hope to use these channels to let more people discover the many great things Boracay has to offer,” Catalbas said.
“For this summer, Smart launched the ‘Share Your Summer Story’ campaign to encourage everyone to share his or her summer moments online – such as through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube – to make them more fun and memorable. We are happy that our campaign aligns with DOT’s vision, because indeed, word of mouth online has a powerful ripple effect that can inform and influence anyone on the Internet,” said Lumanlan.
“The Labor Day weekend in Boracay has become huge. This is understandable because what better way to celebrate the fruits of your labor than to unwind in Boracay, which we dub as Asia’s 24/7 Party Island,” Catalbas said.
Asia’s 24/7 party island
As part of DOT’s push to promote Boracay as “Asia’s 24/7 Party Island” this year, the bureau teamed up with Fearless Productions, Inc. in partnership with wireless services leader Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) to mount ‘Sunkissed Boracay: 24/7 Party Series,’ the biggest line-up of electronic dance parties on the shores of the island.
Sunkissed Boracay will take place every night from April 30 to May 3 at the White Beach Station 1, featuring top foreign and local DJs in all-night rave parties.
“Smart is thrilled to be part of this huge effort to promote Boracay, and everyone on the island can count on Smart’s beefed-up network so they can share their summer experiences with their friends and loved ones through call, text or apps in an instant,” Lumanlan said.
Labor Day weekend
To manage the crowd and maintain Boracay’s cleanliness, Catalbas said the bureau is also coordinating with the local government, resort owners and establishments, uniting all these stakeholders to make the Labor Day weekend a clean, safe and fun time for tourists.
Boracay, which has consistently been included in the list of the top beaches in the world by several international travel publications and organizations, was visited by 682,832 foreign tourists and 745,266 domestic tourists last year, bringing in P27 billion in revenues.
This year, DOT targets a total of 1.5 million visitors for Boracay, which the bureau hopes to achieve with the help of social media, on top of traditional means of promotion.
“If you’re spending summer in Boracay, you might just well be our perfect ambassador,” said Catalbas. “Your tweets, photos, and posts on like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, could actually urge someone to finally make that trip to the island.”