Etymology[edit]

The name Boracay is attributed to different origins. One story says that it is derived from
the local word "borac" which means white cotton with characteristics close to the color
and texture of Boracay's white sugary and powdery sand. Another credits the name to
local words "bora," meaning bubbles, and "bocay," meaning white. Yet another version
dating back to the Spanish era says the name is derived from "sagay," the word for a
shell, and "boray," the word for seed.[18]

History[edit]
Pre-colonial period[edit]
Boracay was originally home to the Ati people. Boracay Island was already an inhabited
place before the Spaniards came to the Philippines. It was known to the Iberian
conquerors as Buracay. At the time of contact with the Europeans, Buracay had a
population of one hundred people, who cultivated rice on the island and augmented their
income by raising goats.[19]

Contemporary period[edit]
Boracay is part of Aklan Province, which became an independent province on April 25,
1956.[20][21][22]
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. [23]
Tourism came to the island beginning in about the 1970s.[24][25] The movie Too Late the
Hero was filmed in 1970 on locations in Boracay and Caticlan. [26] In the 1980s, the island
became popular as a budget destination for backpackers.[20] By the 1990s, Boracay's
beaches were being acclaimed as the best in the world. [27]
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.