Foreign Tourists Want To Stay Longer In Rp

[Steve]

FOREIGN TOURISTS WANT TO STAY LONGER IN RP - BI January 06.2013

Despite negative travel advisories and the country’s raging dispute with China over islands in the West Philippine Sea, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported that many foreign tourists who visited the country in 2012 opted to stay here longer or beyond the period of their visa.

BI Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. disclosed that from January to December last year the BI visa extension office processed and approved a total of 172,055 applications for extension of stay by foreign tourists.

David said the number of approved visa extensions in 2012 was 13-percent higher than the 151,913 applications for extension of stay the bureau approved in 2011. “Our country remains a favorite tourist destination that many foreign visitors are opting to stay here longer not only for vacation or to visit our tourist attractions but also to explore business and investment opportunities,” the BI chief said.

BI visa extension office acting chief Julius Cortez explained that under the existing rules, non-visa required foreign tourists are admitted for 21 days upon their arrival in a Philippine port of entry while visa-required nationals are granted an initial stay of 59 days.

They may then apply to extend their stay for two months and every two months thereafter until they reached the maximum stay of 16 months, Cortez said

“All of them may extend their sojourn in the Philippines before the lapse of their authorized stay so long as they do not violate the conditions of their stay and pay the required fees to the bureau,” he added.

Cortez also bared that tourist visa extensions were highest in December, August, July, and January when more than 15,000 applications were processed while the lowest was registered April when only more than 12,000 were approved.

The Department of Tourism expected to lure as much as 4.5 million foreign tourists in 2012. Last January to June, the DOT recorded 2.1 million tourist arrivals – mostly from South Korea, United States, Japan, China and Taiwan.

Aside from the said countries, there has also been a steady influx of nationals from neighboring countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).###

[stevewool]

cant blame them, sun, sea and whats the other one

[Markham]

It's hardly surprising that extension applications were up last year over 2011 because there were more inbound tourists. 2011 was a disastrous year for tourism - due mainly to adverse publicity following the Manila Bus shooting incident - so a fairer comparison would be for the year of 2010. The quoted figures are, I suspect, for all section 9 visas which would include Koreans, and others, attending language schools which I do know have recovered.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Its also likely that the official numbers are up as the corruption numbers are down. Same amount of visitors though. So many of those 'tourists' are permanent residents without official sanction. If they simplified the other forms of Visa such as the retirement visa then the tourists numbers would go down.

[Markham]

And some will be resident tourists, eh! :lol:

[JJReyes]

Thanks Steve for posting the information. The ones applying for extensions are not tourists or students. The majority are informal residents.

Edited January 9, 2013 by JJR

[Call me bubba]

Thanks Steve for posting the information. The ones applying for extensions are not tourists or students. The majority are informal residents.

Yes JJR many are "INFORMAL RESIDENTS" that do the extending, is this due to the "barriers" that the BI have in place to make it harder for "informal resdents", I am not aware of other countries visa policy for "long-term or informal residents"

but are they MUCH SIMPLIER , than the current getting extended visas are"more fun in the philippines"

[Markham]

Regionally speaking, the Philippines offers the best deal for those who wish to be informal residents (or resident tourists). At least you can extend your stay bi-monthly without too much difficulty, fuss or hassle unlike, for example, Thailand or Cambodia and, as far as I know, you wouldn't have that option at all in Malaysia.

[Bigdog]

Cambodia has a 30 day tourist visa which can be extended once OR a business visa(now i think its called a special visa) for $5 more which can be extended 1, 3 , 6 or 12 months at a time..this visa also allows you to work