Mas maraming turista mula sa India target ng DOT; visa liberalization sa Pilipinas, muling isinulong

Nais ng Department of Tourism (DOT) na makahikayat ng mas maraming turista mula sa India para bumisita sa Pilipinas.

Ayon kay Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco, malaki ang potensyal para sa tourism growth ng Pilipinas at India lalo na’t popular ang bansa sa mga Indian pagdating sa wedding at diving tourism.

Noong 2024 aniya ay nasa limang milyong turista mula sa India ang bumiyahe sa ASEAN, pero halos 80,000 lamang ang bumisita sa Pilipinas.

Sinabi ni Frasco, “Over 5 million indian have come to the SEAN in 2024 and the Philippines have received 79,000, so there’s still so much room to grow as far as Philippines is concerned, especially we are the world’s leading dive destinations and Asias leading beach destination.’

Inihayag pa ni Frasco na malaki ang maitutulong para maragdagan ang Indian tourists, ay ang pagpapaunlad pa sa electronic visa system para sa mga Indian at mas maraming direct flights sa mga tourist destination sa Pilipinas.

Ayon sa kalihim, “We hope that the DFA carries out the president’s instruction to ensure that the efficiency and effectivity of electronic visa system is improved and that the connectivity to the Philippines also increased thru more direct flight to various cities in India to different destinations to the Philippines. At the moment the connectivitity is only to Manila and what we want to see is more connectivity direct to our island destinations.”

Sinabi ni Frasco na itinuon nila sa Indian visitors ang target matapos na maghigpit ang gobyerno ng Pilipinas sa pag-i-isyu ng visa sa mga Chinese.

Inamin ni Frasco na mula sa target ng DOT na dalawang milyong Chinese visitors noong 2024, ay mahigit 300,000 lang ang naitalang bumisita.

Aniya, “The electronic visa system was mounted for China at the early stages, however nasuspend, since then there have stricter rules to obtain e-visa from China as imposed by the DFA, and this has devastated our target in terms of 2024. With the challenges that we are facing pertaining to the Chinese market, we are now looking at India. “

Kaugnay nito, muling nanawagan ang kalihim sa Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) at Bureau of Immigration (BI) para sa visa liberalization gaya nang ipnatupad sa maraming ibang ASEAN countries matapos ang pandemya.

Isa aniya ang mahigpit na visa policies ng bansa sa mga hadlang para mas maraming international visitors ang makabiyahe sa Pilipinas.

Dagdag pa ni Frasco, “Yung nangyari matapos ang pandemya, ang ating neighbors from ASEAN, nagkaroon sila ng very aggressive visa liberalization policies, either nag-mount sila ng electronic visas or visa-free na yung mga citizen from many countries around the world. Kaya yun po ang adbokasiya ng DOT, as early as the start of the admin, we advocated DFA as well as BI that to become globally competitive destination or at the very least competitive in ASEAN, we have to liberalize our visa policies.”

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