8.1M tourist arrivals in PH for 1st 8 months of 2023 -- BI
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) recorded more than 8.1 million tourist arrivals for the first eight months of 2023 compared to only 2.8 million during the same period in 2022.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said "the significant increase in arriving passengers show that tourism and international travel are already on the rebound."
Tansingco projected that the number of tourist arrivals in the country could reach around four million during the last quarter of the year.
He assured that the BI fully supports measures undertaken by the Department of Tourism (DOT) to entice more people to come to the Philippines.
“We are procuring more e-gates for faster immigration processing,” he said.
“Through technology, we can work around the limited space that we have at the airports and improve passenger experience,” he also said.
BI Spokesperson Dana Krizia M. Sandoval explained an e-gate is “an electronic booth that captures the passport and biometric details of passengers.”
“Our e-gates replaces face-to-face contact between the passenger and the immigration officer,” she said.
“It can lower processing time from 45 seconds to as much as eight seconds,” she added.