IN the first quarter of 2024, more than 141,000 Chinese nationals arrived in the Philippines according to the Department of Tourism.
However, when compared to the number of Chinese tourists recorded in our neighboring Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines has been left behind by countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Cambodia.
According to Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco, the reason these countries are being visited is because of their visa-free policy for Chinese tourists.
“Well if you compare the Philippines with its other ASEAN neighbors in terms of visa policies, Philippines is the most stringent in terms of providing visas to Chinese.”
“Of course, if we look at the tourism numbers, the Philippines is lagging behind in terms of the Chinese arrivals because our neighbors have already granted Visa-free entry to Chinese nationals,” according to Sec. Christina Garcia-Frasco, Department of Tourism.
PH tightens visa requirements for Chinese tourists for added security: Immigration
But now, the Department of Foreign Affairs will further tighten the visa requirements for Chinese tourists. They will now require a social insurance certificate as proof of identification.
In addition to the necessary documents such as government-issued ID, employment certificate, and bank statement.
The DFA will also increase the minimum number of applicants from three to ten.
For the Bureau of Immigration, this is additional protection against foreigners with suspicious intentions entering the Philippines.
“Now, we can see that there are changes in the landscape, in our relations with other countries, it’s necessary to also have a different perspective, different assessment of foreign nationals coming here,” said Dana Sandoval, Spokesperson, Bureau of Immigration.
“In the Bureau, we are able to exclude, meaning, we denied the entry of more than 3,300 foreign nationals last year. We think that this number will decrease because of the change that’s going to be implemented by the DFA. Because it means that these individuals will be screened better so that undesirables are better kept out of the country,” Sandoval added.
PH gov’t assures tourism unaffected
For the private sector, they see no issue with the DFA tightening visa requirements for Chinese tourists, as they believe it is necessary to strike a balance between the economy and the country’s security.
“We have to make sure that the Chinese tourists who are coming here are for legitimate reasons. that’s number 1. Number 2, I believe that we should encourage Chinese tourists to come here provided that, many of them like beaches. So, we need to have a balance no,” Joey Concepcion, Founder, Go Negosyo said.
“I think for every foreigner or tourist who wants to come here we have to make sure na they have the proper documentation,” Concepcion said.
The Department of Tourism assures that despite the tightening of requirements, they will continue their efforts to prevent the downturn of the country’s tourism industry.
“And that’s why even our tourism attaches and offices in China continue to collaborate with our partner local stakeholders there so that we can continue with our chartered flights as well as we can continue to push for Philippine Tourism to these nationalities. In cognizant of course with the present situation at the same time of the necessity of ensuring that we continue to provide opportunities sa ating mga kababayan in terms of tourism,” Frasco stated.
The DOT continues to strengthen its collaboration with travel and tourism stakeholders in South Korea to achieve 1.8 to two million tourist arrivals from the said country this year.
The DOT is also opening the Philippines to other tourism markets such as Middle Eastern countries and India.
“There is no reason why the Philippines should not be able to capture these market. And we continue to hope for visa policies that are reflective of the openness of the Philippines to travel and tourism and supportive of our goals of tourism industry that will strive and surpass its goals for this year,” she said.
