13.5K tourists arrive in PH on Friday

MANILA – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Saturday reported that over 13,000 tourists arrived in the country on Friday.

BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said they expect more arrivals during the dry season.

“When April 1 hit, with almost pre-pandemic visa policies, our total arrivals reached 13,525 individuals,” she said at the Laging Handa briefing.

Ninety percent of the arrivals entered through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

“Majority (of those who arrived) were Filipinos while around 30 percent were foreign nationals,” she added.

In March, the daily average arrivals were 10,000, with some days recording as many as 12,000.

Effective April 1, foreigners can now enter the country without the need to present entry exemption documents.

They must be fully vaccinated, have basic requirements such as passports valid for at least six months, return tickets, acceptable proof of vaccination as approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), and negative Covid-19 test results.

The reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test must be taken 48 hours prior to departure while a possible replacement is a negative laboratory-based antigen test taken within 24 hours before departure.

Acceptable proofs of vaccination that foreigners can present include the World Health Organization International Certificate of Vaccination and Prophylaxis, VaxCertPH, national or state digital certificate of a foreign country accepting VaxCertPH, and other proofs of vaccination permitted by the IATF-EID.