By: Venus G. Villanueva
KALIBO, Aklan – Collections generated by Aklan’s jetty ports operating in Caticlan, Malay, Cagban in Boracay Island and by operations of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) from January to May 2012 registered an increase of 44.86 percent, based on records of the province’ Economic Enterprise Development Department (EEDD).
For the five-month period, the province’ jetty ports were able to collect a total of P89,807,766.28.
Compared to last year’s collections for the same period totaling P61,992,960.21, the earnings this year is higher by P27,814.806.07.
For the five-month operations, May registered the highest with P31,400,034.84, registering an increase of 120.16 percent compared with last year’s earnings of P14,262,122.89.
The month of April had the second highest collections with P21,870,825.99, posting an increase of 31.18 percent as last year’s collections for the same month reached P16,672,225.73.
The months of January, February, and March registered over P10 million collections each.
Meanwhile, tourist arrivals in Boracay Island for the five-month period also this year registered a record high of 603,176, up by 40.14 percent compared with 2011 for the same period which had 430,383.
The month with the highest arrivals was April with 161,504, followed by March with 118,177 and May, which had 117,418.
January also registered a big number of arrivals with 110,518, while February had the lowest, with 95,559.
For May, domestic tourists dominated the arrivals with 86,893 while foreign visitors accounted for 27,039, and overseas Filipino workers 3,396.
Tourism receipts generated from May 1 to 25, according Provincial Tourism Operations Office records, reached P1.99 billion