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| Boracay Island, Philippines |
White Sand Beaches
Boracay was originally home to the Ati, tribe. Boracay is part of Aklan Province, which became an independent province on April 25, 1956.
Sofia Gonzales Tirol and her husband Lamberto Hontiveros Tirol, a town judge on nearby Panay island, took ownership of substantial properties on the island around 1900 and planted coconuts, fruit trees, and greenery on the island. Others followed the Tirols, and cultivation and development of the island gradually spread from this initial beginning.
Tourism came to the island beginning in about the 1970s. The movie Too Late the Hero was filmed in 1970 on locations in Boracay and Caticlan. In the 1980s, the island became popular as a budget destination for backpackers, By the 1990s, Boracay's beaches were being acclaimed as the best in the world. In 2012, the Philippine Department of Tourism, reported that Boracay had been named the world's second best beach after Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
