Tourist arrivals picking up – BI

THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Wednesday said the agency recorded a significant increase in this year's foreign and Filipino arrivals, which showed that «tourism is on a rebound.»

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said 8,117,286 Filipino and foreign passengers were processed by the agency from January to August 2023, higher than the 2,873,423 recorded during the same period in 2022.

«We are getting there. The significant increase in arriving travelers shows that tourism and international travel are already on the rebound,» he said.

Tansingco's remark comes after Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said the country recorded more than 4 million foreign visitors from January to September 2023.

«We are procuring more e-gates for faster immigration processing. Through technology, we can work around the limited space that we have at the airports and improve passenger experience,» the BI chief added.