The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said that its officers at the different airports and seaports, are ready to implement possible travel restrictions for passengers flying in from China.
The statement comes after reports of another Covid-19 surge in the Chinese region, prompting countries to consider once again implementing travel bans.
“We take the cue from the DOH, the IATF, and the Office of the President on implementing travel restrictions,” said BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco. “While we have not received any directive yet about it, we are ready at any time to implement any such measures that the government deems appropriate to prevent another surge in the Philippines,” he added.
It can be recalled that at the height of the pandemic, the BI implemented country-specific travel bans to prevent the entry of certain Covid-19 variants.
The BI also reported that only 30,002 Chinese tourists have entered the country for 2022.
“Chinese nationals used to take the second highest spot in the number of arrivals in the country, next to South Koreans,” said Tansingco. “But during the pandemic, due to travel bans both here and in their home country, the number has drastically dropped,” he shared.
The number is only 0.48% of the BI’s total recorded arrivals of more than 6.1 million travelers in 2022.
BI records 6 million arrivals for 2022
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Immigration recorded more than six million arrivals for the year 2022.
In a press release, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco shared that immigration officers processed a total of 6,125,841 arrivals in 2022.
“This is already a major leap from the last two years, wherein our airports were quiet due to the decrease in travelers, following travel restrictions imposed at the height of the pandemic,” said Tansingco.
Prior to the pandemic, the BI reported a whopping 17 million arrivals for 2019.
“While we are not yet seeing pre-pandemic figures, the increase is already evident,” said Tansingco. “We share the optimism of the Tourism Department that travel is on the rebound, and we will expect more tourists in the following months,” he added.
Of the recorded arrivals, 3.6 million were Filipinos. The top travelers to the country were passengers from the United States of America with 687,135 arrivals, South Korea with 448,491 arrivals, Australia with 152,476 arrivals, followed by Canada and Japan with 141,578 and 123,011 arrivals respectively.
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