processing only 60 a day? philippine tourism secretary calls for cancellation of visa application quotas for chinese citizens

Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Garcia Frasco (Christina) said at a Philippine visa reform conference held on March 24 that although the country has reopened its borders and tourism activities, the number of Chinese tourists has dropped from the second place before the epidemic to seventh place.

According to the Philippine Ministry of Tourism, the number of Chinese tourists to the Philippines "slowly increased" in the first three months of this year ".

Vlasco said: "The Philippine government must remove the visa quota imposed on Chinese citizens. Due to the restrictions currently in place, the number of visas expected to be issued is very limited, which will result in a loss of revenue from the tourism industry. If the visa issue is not resolved immediately, the country will lose about $2.51 billion in revenue."

She added: "Airlines and charter operators have contacted us with serious concerns about the current restrictions. According to them, they may not be able to increase flight frequencies due to low passenger numbers, and tickets and travel packages may become too expensive and therefore uncompetitive."

Vlasco said that in 2019, the Philippine Embassy and Consulate in China processed about 1.5 million visas for the Chinese market, with an average of 508 visas per day and sometimes even 2704 visas per day.

She revealed: "However, many airlines that we have contacted revealed that the Philippine Consulate in China has issued a visa application announcement, limiting the number of visa applications accepted every day to about 60 to 100. If our goal is to 2 million Chinese to visit the Philippines, this is the expected goal of the Ministry of Tourism. We need to issue 1136 visas a day, which is equivalent to a total of 1.8 million visas a year, which is not far from the 1.5 million visas issued in 2019."

According to the Philippine Ministry of Tourism, China has a population of more than 1.4 billion, which is a huge opportunity for the Philippines, especially considering that according to 2019 data, there are 0.16 billion Chinese citizens traveling abroad, making China the country with the largest number of outbound tourists in the world.

Vlasco said: "Chinese outbound tourism will exceed the 2019 level in 2024. Therefore, it is vital for the Philippines to ensure that Chinese citizens can easily enter the Philippines."

In 2019, China was the second largest source of international tourists to the Philippines, with more than 1.7 million arrivals and tourism revenue of 2.33 billion pesos.