THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) expressed confidence on the increased influx of foreign tourists to the Philippines for 2022 following the reopening of the country’s borders starting February 10.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said they expect an increase in tourist arrivals due to the national government’s decision to open the country’s borders to foreign travelers after almost two years of restrictions.
“Last year we saw only 1.4 million arrivals, which is significantly lower than the 3.6 million in 2020,” according to Morente. “The numbers were dismal, because pre-pandemic we were hitting 16.9 million arrivals,” he added.
Because of this, the BI reported that tourist extension applications went south to 53 percent in 2021.
According to the BI’s Tourist Visa Section (TVS), the total applications for tourist extensions they received were only 111,781, or 53 percent lower than the 240,276 applications filed with the TVS in 2020.
“The low numbers we’ve seen in the past few years has really affected the tourism and international travel sector,” says Morente. “We remain optimistic that 2022 will be a better year for international travel, especially now that we will reopen our borders. Hopefully, little by little, international tourism regains momentum,” the BI Commissioner said with confidence.