The Philippines will welcome back fully-vaccinated tourists from most countries next week, the government said Friday, over 20 months after shutting its borders to keep out the coronavirus.
Falling Covid-19 infections and rising vaccine coverage will allow the country to revive its battered tourism sector with the December 1 reopening, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Karlo Nograles told reporters.
Fully vaccinated tourists from 157 countries will not be quarantined if they test negative for the virus just before their flight and if they have not travelled to countries with high infection rates in the previous two weeks.
A list of approved countries provided by Nograles, excludes China, the Philippines’ fastest-growing tourist market, as well as Taiwan and India.
But it includes Manila’s remaining top-10 tourism sources, which include the United States, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Canada, Britain, and Germany.
The list allows the…