Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - The
Philippines should relax the visa requirements for visiting Chinese and Indian
nationals to boost tourism in the country, Manila Representative Amado
Bagatsing said.
Bagatsing said requiring Chinese and Indian
tourists to apply for visas to visit the country was a major roadblock in the
current administration's goal of generating six million tourist arrivals by
2016.
Imposing visa requirements on Chinese and
Indians "due to misplaced security concerns" have kept at a
negligible number visitors from these two populous countries, continued
Bagatsing.
"If we start issuing them visas upon
arrival and develop Chinese and Indian-centric tourism offerings and
developments, we might just get at least one per cent of their population to
visit our country¿that's 13 million arrivals coming from China and four million
coming from the 400 million rich Indians," he added, noting that other
Asean countries have more lax visa policies for tourists.
The Philippines had 3.5 million arrivals last
year versus Malaysia's 24.5 million; Thailand's 15.8 million; Singapore's 11.6
million; Indonesia's seven million; and Vietnam's five million.
The failure of the government to provide
security from harassment and crime to tourists was another major turn-off for
visitors, Bagatsing said.
"The government should take definite
steps to protect foreign tourists from any kind of harassment or criminal
activity once they arrive at the airport up to the time they leave. Authorities
in areas frequented by tourists should closely monitor the situation as unpleasant
encounters by foreign tourists with criminals and con men could translate into
fewer tourists," he said.
Bagatsing also noted the country's poor
airport facilities. "The Philippines is far behind Singapore, Hong Kong
and Kuala Lumpur whose airports have become major tourist and local attractions
in themselves."
Gil Cabacungan in Manila/Philippine Daily
Inquirer | ANN
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