THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday said “revenge travel” following the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the height of the pandemic is the main reason for the expected surge in tourist arrivals in the country in the coming holiday season.
BI deputy spokesperson Melvin Mabulac said they are already expecting a surge in the arrival of foreign and Filipino tourists starting as next month.
“We are expecting a surge in visitors considering that we already recorded more than two million since June this year. At inaasahan nating dadami pa ito at dadagsa ang mga bibisita na pupunta dito sa Pilipinas (We expect a further increase in numbers of those who are going to visit the Philippines),” Mabulac told the “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon” public forum.
“Revenge travel ito kasi ilang taon na di sila nakabiyahe kaya marami ang gusto bumisita at umuwi para ma-experience ang holiday season dito kaya pinaghahandaan namin ito (This is revenge travel because they were not able to travel for several years, that’s why they want to travel and visit the country to experience our holiday season and we are preparing for this),” Mabulac said.
“Nakita natin na mahigitan na natin ang previous record and we are expecting as we go along na dadami pa ito. Punong puno na ang ating mga paliparan (We were able to eclipse the previous record and we are expecting that as we go along, this will further increase.
Our airports are already full of arriving passengers),” he added.
Mabulac said the BI is preparing for the influx of travelers by deploying additional immigration officers and opening more counters not only at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) but other international airports in the country as well.
Mabulac said by next month or November, immigration officers will no longer be allowed to go on leaves to ensure maximum deployment in the country’s international ports of entry.
At the same time, Mabulac appealed to outbound travelers to go to the airport early to avoid any hassle and ensure that they would be able to board their flights on time.
Last July, BI Tourist Visa Section Chief Raymondo Remigio said the agency expects a 20 percent increase in arrivals of foreign tourists by the end of the year due to aggressive marketing campaigns by the government as well as the launch of the online visa application and extension.
Remigio said they recorded more than 91,000 tourist visa extensions during the first half of 2023 alone.
“This is a significant increase from July to December of last year when we only saw around 77,000 extensions,” Remigio said then.
The agency processed a total of 6,125,841 arrivals in 2022. Of this, 3.6 million were Filipinos.
In 2021, the BI recorded a total of 1.4 million arrivals and 3.6 million in 2020.
