Boracay beach in the Philippines (Photo: AFP) Hanoi (VNA) – The Philippines has welcomed morethan 100,000 foreign visitors since the Southeast Asian country reopened itsborder in February.
As of mid-March, inbound visitor arrivals had reached102,031, the highest level since the country closed its border due to theemergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Philippine Secretary of Tourism Bernadette Romulo-Puyat told media.
Foreign tourists will help recover tourism and the reopeningof borders is hoped to create jobs and ensure income for workers in the sector,she said.
Under the new regulations, the country allowed fully-vaccinatedforeign nationals from visa-free countries and regions to enter in February.
It will further ease COVID-19 restrictions this month, grantingentry to all fully-vaccinated foreign nationals.
Statistics showed that tourists from the US topped arrivals,followed by Canada, the UK, the Republic of Korea and Australia.
As a key economic driver, the tourism industry'scontribution to the Philippines' gross domestic product stood at 12.7 percentin 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The pandemic has badly hit the tourism sector, forcinghotels and airlines to lay off staff. Almost 1.1 million workers in the industrywere affected.
Although the numbers are still far from pre-pandemic levels,they will continue to increase amid the sustained decline in COVID-19 cases inthe Philippines as well as ongoing efforts of the government to improve itshealthcare capacity, Puyat said./.
