(As released) The British Chamber supports Philippine Airlines (PAL) and GoNegosyo’s proposals to ease processing protocols of flight passengers, including a shorter quarantine period requirement.

Backed with statistics and research, both proposals suggest a quarantine period of five (5) days for fully vaccinated international travelers, with a given condition that the passengers go through testing before the flight and on their third day from arrival. PAL is pushing this proposal in order to reduce both risk and costs for passengers.

The chamber, moreover, recently held a forum in partnership with Santos Knight Frank, tackling the outlook for the Philippines’ hotel and tourism industry. Tourism Undersecretary Buensuceso emphasized the tourism department’s interests in launching domestic leisure travel as well as international travel for fully vaccinated individuals.

The Chamber acknowledges the importance of prioritizing health and safety. The country, however, may only gain confidence from both businesses and travelers through effective and continuous response to the pandemic. As mentioned during the hotel and tourism outlook forum, the Chamber remains optimistic about the future of tourism in the Philippines, keeping in mind to uphold the safety protocols all the time.

Overall, allowing the shortened quarantine proposal to come to fruition will certainly help the recovery of the aviation, hotel and tourism industries. The Chamber wishes to see this proposal be heeded by the Inter-Agency Task Force. The Chamber believes that these measures support the objective to safely reopen the economy and remains confident that it will prove beneficial for the economy once these measures have been realised.