VACCINATED tourists from many of the Philippines’ top 12 markets will be the first to take in the sunsets on Manila Bay and frolic in the country’s beaches, as government takes the initial steps in lifting its borders to foreign nationals. These include China, Japan, and India, as borders are being eyed for reopening by December 2021.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat announced on Friday that the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has approved in principle the entry of fully vaccinated tourists from Green List countries/territories/jurisdictions.” Guidelines on their arrival are still being finalized by the Special Technical Working Group (TWG) on Travel. She told the BusinessMirror, “I hope these will be approved by next week.”
Aside from these countries, others on the Green List include: Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, American Samoa, Bhutan, Chad, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Falkland Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, China, Japan, Indonesia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mali, Marshall, Islands, Montserrat, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Paraguay, Rwanda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sint Eustatius in the Lesser Antilles, South Africa, Sudan, Taiwan, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In a news statement, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said, allowed to enter are individuals inoculated with “vaccines recognized by the country’s Food and Drug Administration under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) or those authorized by the World Health Organization.”
Romulo Puyat said, “Allowing tourists from green countries or territories that have the majority of its population vaccinated and with low infection rate, will greatly help in our recovery efforts--increasing tourist arrivals and receipts among others. This move will likewise aid in bolstering consumer confidence, which is a large contributor to our gross domestic product or GDP (gross domestic product) growth.”
She noted other countries have already reopened their borders to international leisure travelers. “Our Asean neighbors like Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia also did the same. We believe that it is also time for us to reopen our borders for inbound tourism as a way towards full recovery.”
For his part, Tourism Congress of the Philippines president Jose C. Clemente III said, "After almost two years, we are very pleased to know that foreign visitors from the Green List countries will soon be allowed to enter the Philippines without need for a quarantine period. We hope that this is the start of the revivial of the tourism industry moving forward.”
He added: "We also continue to remind our stakeholders to not let their guard down despite of the eased conditions. The pandemic is still around and we reiterate our call to continue observing health and safety protocols to ensure that we can remain open."
The DOT is also currently working with the Small TWG on Travel on a separate proposal for vaccinated travel lanes or travel bubbles for vaccinated tourists coming from yellow list countries. There are still ongoing talks on travel bubbles with the governments of Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, with possible partner destinations such as Metro Manila, Bohol, or Cebu, which host international airports.
Prior to the pandemic, the Philippines welcomed 8.26 million tourist arrivals in 2019, up 15 percent from the previous year. Of the total arrivals in 2019, tourists from China accounted for 21.1 percent, Japan (8.3 percent), and India (1.63 percent).
