Tourists to Long Beach must pay 100 peso travel insurance?!

Frolibar Bautista, mayor of Malay, Aklan province, where Boracay Island (Boracay) is located, said a few days ago that in order to be "safe", all tourists must pay 100 peso travel insurance per person before entering the country's most popular holiday island.

The mayor said in an interview: "Yes, tourists must pay insurance. This is to protect them."

Malai Town Regulation No. 2021-444 or the "Insurance System for Preventing Tourists from Personal Injury or Death" was formally implemented on November 23.

It is reported that a "private company" is collecting travel insurance from tourists at the dock through a memorandum of agreement signed with the local government of Malai Town, which is a new fee on top of the environment fee and terminal fee paid by tourists.

However, this new policy has created confusion between travelers and travel agents.

Bautista said that despite the signing of the regulations and regulations, the payment of travel insurance is not mandatory. However, the fifth section of the regulations stipulates that "all tourists to Boracay" must pay travel insurance.

The mayor pointed out: "The implementation regulations do say so. Some people have already purchased travel insurance from their travel agencies, so they no longer need to purchase insurance at the dock."

He finally admitted that the implementation of the regulation has not been fully implemented, "we are still studying it, and the implementation is gradual".