MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) has achieved its year-end target of foreign tourist arrivals in the country, with more than two months to go before 2022 ends.
Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco said that as of Oct. 10, an estimated 1.7 million foreign visitors have flown into the country – a figure that was the DOT’s target for international arrivals by December 2022.
“The Philippines is on its way to a full recovery and we will build back stronger,” she said during the awarding rites of the “Women of Style and Substance” by PeopleAsia magazine.
Frasco, who was among those awarded, shared that in her first 100 days as tourism chief, the DOT “engaged in listening tours in all our 16 regions, engaged in Philippine economic briefings outside the country, conveying as much as possible to the world that the Philippines is open, the Philippines is ready not only (to) take back its pre-pandemic position but to take a primary position in the world because that is the birthright of every Filipino.”
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the country was reopened to international tourists in February and gradually lifted pandemic-related travel restrictions like mandatory quarantine and testing.