As the Philippines hits 10,000 Covid cases a day and being one of the worse countries in Asia to tackle the pandemic, tourism in the Philippines takes another hit as Metro Manila was placed on ECQ once again.
It's been a full year since lockdown and thousands if not millions of Filipinos in the hospitality industry have lost their jobs. In late 2020 things were starting to look up. Restaurants were coming back, some resorts re-opened, even Boracay and Siargao were slowly welcoming a small but noteworthy amount of Filipinos willing to travel domestically.
Around this time we got news that a vaccine or two have been approved abroad and it finally seemed like we could see the end of the tunnel! Until the Christmas season came, where people gathered with friends and families, the New Year came and somehow people became relaxed as if Covid was gone??? Eventually people started to get "Caution Fatigue" and was getting tired of following health & safety protocols.
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Dreamland Beach Warung, Bali
Despite all the set backs there are some good news. Some countries have announced that they will be re-opening their borders to foreigners who have been fully vaccinated in the next coming months.
Iceland has already opened their borders to those vaccinated and have started letting Americans and English people in. Poland and Romania has opened their borders as well as a few other European countries. In Asia, only Thailand has made an official announcement to welcome fully vaccinated tourists and skip the mandatory quarantine.
We're hoping other countries will follow suit including the Philippines and here is why.
There is one problem with re-opening borders and that is its a two-way street. Meaning a country might be open and you can visit without going through a quarantine, but upon going back home you might still need to quarantine because each country has a different set of rules.
So it virtually makes it useless to if only one country allows it. I personally don't see why the Philippines can't open to fully vaccinated travellers. Its extremely low risk and helps build back the economy which has been brutally hit by the pandemic. Looking at the PSEI, which has been the barometer for the Philippine economy, will tell you this. Plus vaccine rollout has been swift in the west. The US has at least 50 million vaccinated and I'm sure several of them are dying to travel as well.
Things to look out for though are fake vaccination cards and the need to have a good system in place for immigration and border control. This is where vaccine passports will come into play and have been gaining traction. Although there seems to be some debate over how effective they would be.
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