Philippine Tourism Bureau Bai Aiwen: The implementation of an electronic visa system will speed up Chinese tourists' travel to the Philippines

On March 6, Dr. Bai Aiwen, the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in China and the Tourism Counselor of the Beijing Office of the Philippine National Tourism Administration, said in an interview with the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter that the Philippines will implement an electronic visa system in a few months, which will speed up Chinese tourists travel to the Philippines.

Beijing News Shell Finance: After the resumption of outbound travel, what are your predictions for the market situation of Chinese tourists traveling to the Philippines this year?

Bai Aiwen: In 2019, China was the second largest tourist source market in the Philippines, and it was also one of the countries with the longest stay (an average of 9.51 days per trip) and the highest consumption (an average of US $140.57 per day). During this period, the Chinese market contributed about 2.33 billion US dollars. As of February 2023, the number of Chinese tourists to the Philippines ranked eighth, which means that we still have a lot of work to do to reach the pre-epidemic level. According to our exchanges with tourism partners, the Philippines ranks fourth among the Southeast Asian countries they expect to visit in 2023.

The Philippines will implement an electronic visa system in a few months, which will speed up the travel of Chinese tourists to the Philippines. We are optimistic that this will encourage more Chinese tourists to travel to the Philippines. Therefore, we predict that the market for Chinese tourists to visit the Philippines this year will at least reach the pre-epidemic level.

The Philippines is rich in island resources. Beijing News Shell Finance: What do you think are the difficulties you may encounter this year? How to solve and adjust?

Bai Aiwen: As I mentioned above, our solution to the long queue of Philippine visa applicants is the electronic visa system, which will be up and running in a few months. Our president has issued instructions to all relevant government agencies to accelerate the facilitation of the electronic visa system, not only for the Chinese market, but also for other markets such as India, South Korea and Japan. With this system, I believe the Philippine tourism market will recover faster.