Boracay is a popular tourist island and the infrastructure needed to accommodate tourism was put in place at a fast pace.

[5] The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau, together with the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, Laguna, had earlier commissioned a study to compute Boracay's "real carrying capacity".

According to the study, Boracay can accommodate a total of 54,945 people at a time, broken down into 19,215 tourists and 35,730 residents, which includes 22,395 stay-in workers.

Other alternatives includes the provision of a new port for workers and permanent residents to avoid congestion in the existing one, which will be ring-fenced for tourist use.

[12] There was some criticism of the planned closure, with some people thinking that the government was taking action not for environmental reasons but to destroy smaller businesses.

[13] The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) announced that journalists would need permission to cover the shutdown of Boracay.

[14] On April 14, 2018, the Department of Tourism of the Philippines issued guidelines that sought to limit media coverage of the Boracay shutdown.

[14] The CMFR said the accreditation system was a form of prior restraint,[17] and noted a wider pattern of restrictions that sought to limit press freedom in the Philippines.

[20] The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) distributed relief goods to residents of Boracay while the island is closed to tourists.

[32] As a result of the closure, the Boracay police recorded only 14 index crimes from April 26 to June 22, 2018, as opposed to 176 cases during the same period the previous year.

[33] An article in The Philippine Star following the re-opening said that local people and business owners had found the shutdown hard, but thought that it had been valuable.

[34] Following Boracay's closure, the Department of Tourism issued a warning on October 19 to local government units based in five major tourist destinations to follow environmental laws, namely El Nido in Palawan, Panglao in Bohol, Oslob in Cebu, La Union, and Baguio.

[39][40] On June 27, 2018, the Department of the Interior and Local Government filed a complaint against 17 executive officials including Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores and Malay Municipal Mayor Ciceron Cawaling over neglect over Boracay.

The officials were alleged to have been lax in issuing building permits and to have failed to tackle illegal development activities on the island.

[42][43] The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is working with the local government of Malay and other stakeholders to come up with new regulations once Boracay is opened to tourists.

[28] The Department of Tourism would also prohibit smoking and drinking of alcohol in public places and the beaches of Boracay, though these activities would be allowed in designated areas.

[45] In 2024, however, the municipal government of Malay allowed beach parties to be held in the island again as part of efforts to attract younger tourists.

Moreover, fire eaters, masseuses, vendors, stray dogs, bonfires and builders of photo-op sandcastles have been banned from the beachfront.

[29] The Department of Energy (DOE) donated 200 electric tricycles to the Malay local government in Aklan to improve the public transport system, embarking on "more sustainable tourism development for the island".

[47] These e-trikes are planned to replace the gasoline-powered tricycles on the island for "greener public transportation", and are also seen as the way forward to reduce the vulnerability of the country on the volatility of international oil price movements and other economic impacts.

[48] One of the major beneficiaries of the e-trike project would be the Boracay Ati Tribal Organization (BATO) in coordination with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.