Authorities in the Philippines are planning to ease entry rules for international tourists, especially those from China and India.
The Tourism Secretary, Christina Frasco, said the government agencies must explore the provision of the travel mechanism, including the electronic visa system in order to further facilitate the travel process for foreign nationals,
According to the Inquirer report, the Tourism Secretary held a meeting together with other agencies, including the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Justice as well as the Bureau of Immigration in convergence, in order to discuss visa concerns well as current tourism situation, VisaGuide.World reports.
Frasco emphasized that there are still bottlenecks that stop the country from fully unlocking its potential when it comes to international tourism while recognizing the achievement noted last year in the tourism sector.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) said that a total of 58 percent of Indian visitors were repeat travelers, which emphasizes the need to sustain and also increase their entry.
The department noted that India is an important market source of foreign visitors.
“We are the only country that [has yet to] provide the convenient electronic visa for Indian nationals. This is a huge market that the Philippines has yet to explore,” Frasco said in a statement.
At the same time, the Department also emphasized the potential of the Chinese market, stressing that in 2019, China was the second-largest source of inbound tourists to the Philippines.
In addition, Frasco noted that the Philippines’ posts in China in 2019 processed over 1.5 million visas, ranging from a daily average of 507 per post to a total of 2,704.
“Of our low target of half a million Chinese coming… to the Philippines, we would need to issue 1,704 visas per day. If we are to target the medium scenario of a million Chinese into the country then we would need to issue 3,409 visas per day,” she said.
The Philippines’ travel and tourism sector was highly affected by the spread of the Coronavirus and its new variants. The figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that a total of 4,080,182 people have tested positive for the Coronavirus in the Philippines up to this point, while a total of 66,332 people have lost their lives during the same period.
However, despite such figures, authorities in the Philippines managed to welcome a large number of visitors. In addition, it was reported that gains from the tourism industry breached that country’s 1.7 million targets, welcoming a total of 2.65 million international visitors last year.
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