Tourism chief brushes off impact of tighter entry rules for fully vaxxed travelers

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat brushed off the impact on the tourism industry of the suspension of a resolution allowing the entry of fully vaccinated foreigners with visa-free privileges amid the threat of Omicron variant of COVID-19.

“This is a small hiccup in our plans for fully reopening tourism,” Puyat said during the virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday. 

She added the government will continue to focus on boosting domestic tourism.

The Tourism chief said that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF-EID) strategy in light of the Omicron variant threat is to tighten borders, which is also being done by other countries.

“There are no reports yet of the Omicron variant in the Philippines, but we must not let our guards down,” she said.

Banking on the progress of the vaccination drive, the Puyat said local government units are encouraged to open up their destinations to local travelers.

“We hope to continue the trend of increasing domestic travel to our tourist attractions,” Puyat said.

“Since the gradual resumption of tourism operations this September, we’ve seen an uptick in domestic tourists numbers in destinations like Boracay island, Baguio City, Palawan, Siargao especially since the alert levels are now in more relaxed stages,” she said.

However, she reminded the tourism stakeholders to still observe minimum health and safety protocols.

On Monday, presidential spokesperson Karlo Alexei Nograles announced the suspension of the implementation of Resolution 150-A issued by the IATF-EID.

The resolution provides for the entry of fully vaccinated nationals of non-visa-required countries from Green List countries, jurisdictions, and territories which was initially scheduled to take effect December 1.

As agreed upon by the IATF, Nograles said the Philippines will place territories under the red list or those banned from entering the country once a local transmission of the variant is reported.

Nograles said that while countries may have reported cases of the Omicron variant, they may still remain under the green or yellow lists if the cases are imported and are not locally transmitted.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated Omicron as a variant of concern, and many countries are racing to try and contain it. The origin of the variant is currently unclear, but South African scientists were the first to announce the discovery on November 25.

The Philippines has so far placed several countries under the red list until December 15, in efforts to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant.—LDF, GMA News