A Christmas miracle for the tourism sector! Shorter quarantine period and soon, foreign tourists.
IN a move seen to boost tourist arrivals and as an early Christmas gift, the Department of Tourism is reducing the hotel quarantine period for all fully vaccinated inbound Filipino travelers from yellow countries.
Starting November 22, fully-vaccinated returning overseas Filipinos, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and balikbayans must present pre-departure negative test results taken within 72-hours.
Upon arrival, they only need to undergo a three-day facility-based quarantine with testing on the 3rd day.
If they test negative, they will be allowed to go out.
Those without pre-departure testing will be required to undergo the facility-based quarantine with RT-PCR testing on the 5th day.
They will only be allowed to go after getting a negative test result.
DOT strongly advises all travelers to continue self-monitoring up to the 14th day from arrival.
“We thank the national government for heeding our call to let our kababayans come home for Christmas,” Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion said in a statement.
The Go Negosyo founder called for the shortened quarantine period earlier this month citing data from Philippine Airlines and an analysis by the OCTA Research.
Data showed a “very low positivity rate among inbound passengers from the U.S.” and that most new Covid-19 cases in the country are locally transmitted.
Besides being good news to balikbayans coming home for the holidays, Conception says shortening the quarantine period positively affects the economy in terms of increased mobility and additional support for tourist destinations.
Previously, travelers from yellow countries need to undergo facility-based quarantine until the release of a negative RT-PCR test result taken on the fifth day.
They will have to continue quarantine at home to complete 10 days.
Foreign nationals from green countries will soon be allowed to enter the Philippines as DOT has formed a special technical working group on travel to iron the guidelines for final approval by the IATF.
“Allowing tourists from green countries or territories that have the majority of its population vaccinated and with low infection rate will greatly help in our recovery efforts – increasing tourist arrivals and receipts among others,” Tourism Secretary Berna Puyat said.
Tags: #tourism, #departmentoftourism, #yellowcountries, #foreigntourists