NEW YORK CITY — International travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler named Boracay the Top Island in the World at an award party held at 1 World Trade Center in New York City.
Zenn Pallugna of the Philippine Department of Tourism in New York accepted the award on behalf of the country.
In 2016 two other Philippine island destinations landed on the coveted list of Condé Nast’s Top 20 Best Islands in the World: Palawan (#2) and Cebu (#5).
“This itty-bitty island (10-square mile) in the Western Philippines is as close to the tropical ideal as you’ll find in the Philippines, with gentle coastlines and transporting sunsets. Add in a thriving nightlife scene, and you have one of the top tourist spots in the region,” Condé Nast Traveler writes.
Condé Nast said further that, “The aptly named White Beach is Boracay’s main draw, with powdery white sand and shallow azure water ideal for swimming and snorkeling.”
Pallugna said that the international recognition of the Philippines’ top three island destinations is a big boost to sustained tourism efforts aimed at encouraging more travelers to visit the Philippines to experience its unique beauty and culture.
“The prestigious destination awards we garnered this year from the readers of American travel publications, such as Conde Nast Traveler and Travel+Leisure, reinforce our destinations’ image and ignite curiosity and interest of the affluent American travelers to visit the Philippines,” Pallugna remarked.
Some 300,000-plus travelers took part in the 29th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards Survey of Condé Nast, a premier media company in the US, and voted Boracay as the Top Island in the World for 2016, followed by Palawan and Cebu.
For the last two years, Boracay did not make it in the top 10 of the list (#12 and #13, respectively). This year, Boracay outranked other world-famous islands such as Bali in Indonesia (#10), Tahiti in French Polynesia (15) and Santorini in Greece (#17). This is the third time, after Palawan was voted #1 in 2013 and 2015, that one of the Philippines 1,107 islands was named as the Top Island in World by Conde Nast readers.
The awards event was attended by over 100 awardees, Condé Nast executives and travel company representatives. One of the premier traveling promotion companies in the U.S., Condé Nast attracts over 164 million consumers across its 20 print and digital media brands, including The New Yorker, GQ, Golf Digest and Vogue.
