The Philippines emerged as the fifth tourist destination with the highest drop in tourist arrivals since the start of the pandemic until end-2020, a survey done by travel platform Next Vacay showed.
Data revealed the Philippines lost 82.4 percent of its travel traffic in 2020 for an average of 123,545 monthly visitors from 688,409 visitors, monthly in 2019.
Macau was ranked first in terms of tourist drop at 85.04 percent to 491,419 from more than 3.38 million tourists in 2019.
This was followed by Cyprus with an 84.12 percent decline to 52,634 from 331,398 visitors; Malaysia with an 83.4 drop to 361,060 from 2.17 million; and Thailand with an 83.15 percent drop to 558,415 from over 3.31 million in 2019.
Rounding up the top 10 countries that suffered the biggest decline in tourist arrivals were Mauritius at 77.67 percent; Portugal at 74.71 percent; New Zealand at 74.38 percent; Sri Lanka at 73.47 and Greece at 72.51 percent.
The report noted the Philippine tourism sector, which used to contribute about a fourth to the annual gross domestic production (GDP) during better times, had lost $9.76 billion in potential revenues in 2020.
Next Vacay founder and CEO Naveen Dittakavi called on tourists to make a conscious effort to support local tourism and the economy.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Immigration banned its employees assigned at international airports from going on leave during the holidays to ensure the availability of adequate personnel to serve the traveling public in anticipation of a rise in passenger volume.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente reiterated a standing policy prohibiting immigration employees deployed at the different ports from applying for vacation leaves starting on Dec. 1 until Jan. 15 next year.
Morente said the no-leave policy was necessary to avert long queues at the airports before and after the Christmas and New Year holidays when there is always a marked increase in the number of passengers who enter and exit the country.
“This is the time of every year when the services of our immigration inspectors are most needed in the airports. Thus, in the exigency of the service, we have to make a sacrifice to service the traveling public,” the BI chief said in a statement.
He said that except for medical and emergency reasons, no application for leave by any BI port personnel will be entertained or approved while the one-and-a-half-month ban is in effect.