Immigration stamp on passport. Stock photo
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has ordered the extension of e-visa for Chinese, Indian, South Korean, and Japanese nationals, Malacañang announced on Thursday.
Marcos directed government agencies to act on the extension during a meeting with the Private Sector Advisory Council tourism sector group in Malacañang on Thursday, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said.
“To capture the tourism markets of China and India, PSAC has recommended the inclusion of Indian nationals under the visa-upon-arrival program and the extension of e-visa, which is currently available only for Taiwanese citizens, to Chinese, Indian, South Korean, and Japanese nationals,” PCO Secretary Cheloy Garafil said in a statement.
According to the PCO, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said during the meeting that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is already collaborating with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on the development of the technical plans.
With regard to the visa-upon-arrival, Manalo said the DFA has a program that applies to certain Chinese nationals.
The PCO said that other citizens, such as Americans, Japanese, Australian, Canadians, and Europeans, could have a 14-day visa upon arrival.
For his part, Informations and Technology Secretary Ivan Uy said his department is still studying various connectivity matters that need to be threshed out with respect to the other jurisdictions that will avail of the Philippine e-visa platform.
He said it would take at least a semester to develop the capability because there is so many anti-fraud elements that needs to be consolidated with the platform and the various countries that will be connecting with the system and with the transactions.
With this, Marcos made a recommendation for the DICT to take India’s offer for the use of its app regarding visas.
According to the PCO, the PSAC also recommended the following measures:
- Implementation of a Value-Added Tax (VAT) Refund Program for foreign tourists by 2024
- The removal of One Health Pass (OHP) or requirement of one form only for health, immigration, and customs
- Revocation of outdated advisories and loud-speaker announcements at airports
- Automatic inclusion of travel tax in all airline tickets
Among the PSAC’s short-term strategic recommendations are the improvement of airport infrastructure and operations, promotion of tourism investments and managing national brand or image.
From February to December 2022, the country welcomed 2.65 million visitors (2.02 million foreign tourists and 628,445 Filipinos overseas).
The PCO said that this figure is higher than the 2021 tourist arrivals of 163,879 but still significantly lower than the pre-pandemic level of 8.26 million.
For 2023, the Department of Tourism (DOT) targets 4.8 million tourist arrivals, which could generate P2.58 trillion in revenue.
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