To restore travel to the country’s top tourist destination, the government has discarded age restrictions for Western Visayas tourists going to Boracay Island.
Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, Tourism Secretary, stated that the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases legalized on July 23,2020 a proposition of the Department of Tourism to allow tourists below ages 21 years old and above 60 years old.
Boracay Island was reopened to tourists from Western Visayas on June 16 but one of the Bureau of Fire Prevention tested positive for coronavirus that induced the isolation of 55 people in Malay.
Business operators have also complained that the age restrictions effectively discouraged family trips as health protocol because those ages below 21 and above 60 were presumably more vulnerable to infection.
Though Puyat recognized the truancy of new COVID-19 cases on the island, saying that health and safety measures were strictly implemented upon arrival of local visitors.