The Philippines registered a sharp 72-percent decline in passenger arrivals from January to September due to travel restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) commissioner Jaime Morente said there are 893,886 travelers who visited the country during the first nine months of 2021.
The tally is lower compared to the same period last year where around 3.2 million passengers entered the country.
“This is a far cry from our pre-pandemic figures, wherein we reached 12.6 million arrivals already by the 3rd quarter,” Morente said.
“Statistics show that since January the volume of arrivals in our international ports has been averaging at only around 90,000 to 100,000 a month so we foresee this trend to persist until the end of this year,” he added.
Morente said the daily cap on passenger arrivals and travel restrictions have affected the low visits in the country.
Moreover, around 1.1 million travelers have exited the country for the first three quarters of 2021, lower than 3.6 million last year.
“The bulk of these travelers were overseas Filipino workers as well as foreigners who were returning to their home countries,” he said. Ronald Espartinez