Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat expressed optimism that more foreigners would arrive in the coming days as the Philippines reopened its borders to foreign tourists after a successful effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.
Since the Philippines reopened its doors to tourists on Feb. 10, a total of 21,974 inbound tourist passengers have arrived from different airports across the country--a total 10,074 of them arereturning Filipinos known as “balikbayans while 11,900 are foreign tourists.
"The recent influx of tourists reflect foreign tourists' enthusiasm towards visiting our country, which in turn will accelerate the revival of our tourism industry. We at the DOT continue to be optimistic that this trend will be sustained and will support, not only the tourism industry but also, the recovery and growth of our economy," said Puyat.
According to the DOT, tourists from the United States of America (USA) make up the largest chunk of foreign arrivals during the 10-day period with 5,516 while Canada has 1,366.
The United Kingdom had 918 arrivals between Feb 10 to 19, followed by Australia at 891, 859 were from South Korea, 572 from Vietnam, 459 from Japan, and 447 came from Germany.
Puyat also disclosed that the COVID-19 vaccine certificates of Egypt, Maldives, Albania, Palau, Estonia, Greece, Malta, and Uruguay would also be accepted as proof of vaccination required upon entry to the Philippines.
Earlier, the government approved 12 countries based on the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Resolution No. 162.
Meanwhile, a total of 325,271 individuals or 93 percent of the department's nationwide target of 354,309 tourism workers have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with 19.26% already with booster shots as of Feb. 18.
“The health and safety of both visitors and hosts remain our biggest priority as we open our borders to fully vaccinated tourists. This reopening is made possible by the high vaccination and booster rate of workers in tourism-related industries.” Puyat said.