THE Bureau of Immigration sees a continued increase in tourist arrivals and returning Filipinos this holiday season compared to the same period last year.
BI spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval yesterday said part of the reason for the expected influx of travelers is the easing of travel restrictions due to the continued decline in COVID-19 cases.
“The number of arrivals and even departures are slowly on the rise. This is the result of the lifting of travel restrictions,” Sandoval told the Laging Handa public briefing.
She said that for December 2021, immigration only recorded over 195,000 arrivals while in October alone this year, the number has reached more 634, 000.
Of the arrivals in December last year, 41,216 were Filipinos, many of whom overseas Filipino workers.
The arrivals for December 24 and 25 last year doubled compared to the same period in 2020 when many travel restrictions due to the pandemic were still in place.
During the two-day period last year, the BI recorded 11,074 arrivals compared to 5,478 in 2020.
“We expect that to increase this December up to January which we consider as peak season for travelers,” Sandoval said.
To ensure the smooth flow of arriving and departing passengers, the BI has deployed a rapid response team to augment manpower at immigration counters in NAIA and other international airports in the country.
Sandoval said this will ease the long queues for arriving and departing passengers while also cutting immigration processing time from the usual 45 seconds to just eight seconds.
Immigration personnel are not allowed to file leaves during the holiday season for maximum deployment.
About 100 newly-trained immigration personnel are also deployed to augment the existing 700 BI personnel at NAIA.
