Qantas, Philippine Airlines prepare for a travel rebound between Australia and Manila as Philippines reopens tourism from Feb 10

Monday, January 31, 2022

The Philippines will reopen to tourists from February 10, almost two years after the nation closed its international borders against the groundswell of Covid-19.

Citizens of some 150 countries which previously enjoyed visa-free entry to the Philippines – including Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom – will once again be able to visit the popular Asian destination without entering quarantine.

The economic losses caused to the tourism-dependent archipelago by two years of lockdown were compounded by a super typhoon that smashed into the country in December.

“The tourism industry can now recover and it can contribute big to jobs, livelihoods and the country’s economic growth,” presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said a briefing.

The Philippines will scrap its ‘traffic light’ system which ranked countries based on their handing of Covid-19, and shifting the focus onto individual travellers, who must be fully vaccinated and submit a negative result for a PCR test taken within 48 hours of their flight’s departure.

While unvaccinated travellers remain banned, unvaccinated Filipino nationals can enter the country on the basis of entering five days quarantine.

Philippine Airlines has continued to connect Australia and the Philippines with flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Manila, all on the carrier’s Airbus A321-series jets, while Qantas has tentatively pencilled in a daily Airbus A330 for the Sydney-Manila route from March 27.

However, while popular tourism destinations such as Boracay will welcome visitors, some parts of the Philippines – including many of its smaller islands – impose tight restrictions or remain in lockdown.

As previously reported, Thailand will roll out the welcome mat to visitors from 1 February, while Bali is gearing up for Australian visitors pending government approval for the return of quarantine-free travel.

Australia could also fully reopen its borders to all visitors and business travellers by April, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison remarking over the weekend “I’d like to see us get there soon… certainly before Easter, well before Easter.”

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