FFCCCII supports revival of tourism industry, greater mobility of fully vaccinated people

Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) President Dr. Henry Lim Bon Liong expressed support for proposals which seek to help revive the Philippines’ pandemic-hit tourism industry, such as the call to reduce the quarantine period for fully vaccinated overseas travelers from ten days to five days. He also expressed support for the proposed “Bakuna Bubble” of granting greater mobility to fully vaccinated persons and businesses with fully vaccinated employees, for reopening of the Philippine economy while still protecting public health.

Here is statement of FFCCCII President Dr. Lim:

“More countries in the world are nowadays easing travel restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers, such as the United States which plans to ease foreign travel restrictions beginning in November. Foreign nationals flying into the U.S. will have to be fully vaccinated and test negative for COVID-19 within three days of their flight. Let us support proposals to grant fully vaccinated balikbayan (overseas Filipino) visitors and international tourists similar convenience, by reducing arriving international passenger quarantine period to 5 days.”

“I had been informed that in a recent meeting of the airlines, Department of Health and the Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19, a proposal was made for international flights passengers will be tested 72 hours before their flights, undergo quarantine upon arrival, and take an RT-PCR test on the third day. Those passengers who test negative will be allowed to go home after the fifth day and complete their quarantine at home.”

“Airline industry people have showed data that international arrivals have not contributed significantly to COVID-19 infection rate surges, with average positivity rate was below 0.5% in the last quarter.”

“To accelerate our economic recovery, we need to support and help revive Philippine tourism. Before the pandemic lockdown, the 2019 contribution of the tourism industry to the Philippine economy was 12.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), generating tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA) of 2.48 trillion pesos (roughly 49.54 billion dollars) and providing 5.71 million jobs for that year. We should again rebuild our tourism industry and restore it as one of the catalysts of robust Philippine economic growth.”