New Travel Rules Starting Today

[top_secret 2,347]

9 hours ago, flicks1998 said:

Tourism is not a huge cash generator like other countries in the region.  In fact it only makes up around 2.7% of GDP.

It may be 2.7% now.  But in 2019 it was 12.7% of GDP and 13.5% of employment in the Philippines.

https://psa.gov.ph/tourism/satellite-accounts/id/162606

 

Even then the sector was dramatically underperforming in the Philippines compared to tourism powerhouses like Thailand, but it is hardly an insignificant part of the economy.

[flicks1998 1,044]

41 minutes ago, top_secret said:

It may be 2.7% now.  But in 2019 it was 12.7% of GDP and 13.5% of employment in the Philippines.

https://psa.gov.ph/tourism/satellite-accounts/id/162606

 

Even then the sector was dramatically underperforming in the Philippines compared to tourism powerhouses like Thailand, but it is hardly an insignificant part of the economy.

I’ll have to dig up the source again but it was not a Philippine government source that it came from. I don’t remember if it was world bank or which Organization but the 2018-2019 was just under 3%.  

[flicks1998 1,044]

10 minutes ago, flicks1998 said:

I’ll have to dig up the source again but it was not a Philippine government source that it came from. I don’t remember if it was world bank or which Organization but the 2018-2019 was just under 3%.  

This source has it at 3.2% of 2019. But this was not the source used a few months ago when the loss of tourism and the effects on the Philippine economy was being looked at. I’ll have to pull up that data as I don’t remember the source.  The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I know we never used Philippine government sources very much just because they had a tendency to over or under calculate the numbers depending what was beneficial to them. 
 

https://www.worlddata.info/asia/philippines/tourism.php

[flicks1998 1,044]

1 hour ago, top_secret said:

It may be 2.7% now.  But in 2019 it was 12.7% of GDP and 13.5% of employment in the Philippines.

https://psa.gov.ph/tourism/satellite-accounts/id/162606

 

Even then the sector was dramatically underperforming in the Philippines compared to tourism powerhouses like Thailand, but it is hardly an insignificant part of the economy.

Actually I think I found it. I believe the 13% is the total contributed by the tourism industry to gdp and 3% of that was attributed to international tourism.  Which is I believe one of the reasons there is not a big push to open up the country to international arrivals at this time. 
 

The government has come out and said that getting a plan for domestic tourism is the priority for 2022 with international tourism plans to follow. 

[RO_AH 1,656]

7 hours ago, flicks1998 said:

The list is not followed that closely. Technically the US should be in the Red list but it’s not. Based on the criteria set by the Philippine government, if the US has over 59000 average daily cases over a 28 day period, it would be on the red list. The US has averaged about 150000 per day. Many other countries on the so called green list shouldn’t be on there as well. 
 

For the US to be on the green list they would have to have less than 5900 average daily cases over a 28 day period. That is impossible unless the US just stops testing. 
 

Many countries on the green list are countries who just don’t do any testing. That’s why the red, yellow and green list is a farce. But it makes it difficult for people to know when a country may fall on a certain Color as it’s just arbitrary. 

It's all bs to me.

[top_secret 2,347]

So it seems that if I hang out for two weeks in Burkina Faso before arrival in the Philippines I could save three days on my quarantine.

[RO_AH 1,656]

4 minutes ago, top_secret said:

So it seems that if I hang out for two weeks in Burkina Faso before arrival in the Philippines I could save three days on my quarantine.

And flying United from HNL is out of the question because it has a layover in Guam. I am happy I booked direct through PAL.

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

16 hours ago, flicks1998 said:

The list is not followed that closely. Technically the US should be in the Red list but it’s not. Based on the criteria set by the Philippine government, if the US has over 59000 average daily cases over a 28 day period, it would be on the red list. The US has averaged about 150000 per day. Many other countries on the so called green list shouldn’t be on there as well. 
 

For the US to be on the green list they would have to have less than 5900 average daily cases over a 28 day period. That is impossible unless the US just stops testing. 
 

Many countries on the green list are countries who just don’t do any testing. That’s why the red, yellow and green list is a farce. But it makes it difficult for people to know when a country may fall on a certain Color as it’s just arbitrary. 

Yes, it's all all about proper testing and reporting. A lot of countries under report and a few probably over report but that is a whole other discussion that causes gnashing of teeth))

[Kby175 115]

On 9/12/2021 at 2:42 AM, RO_AH said:

And flying United from HNL is out of the question because it has a layover in Guam. I am happy I booked direct through PAL.

Same, I am not a big fan of flying PAL but I did not want to take a chance of stopping over and getting stuck some place. Also, PAL has a bit of a streamlined system for processing you at the airport the other airlines don't have.  

 

Booked these tickets pre-pandemic so it is a lucky accident.  

 

[flicks1998 1,044]

3 hours ago, Kby175 said:

Same, I am not a big fan of flying PAL but I did not want to take a chance of stopping over and getting stuck some place. Also, PAL has a bit of a streamlined system for processing you at the airport the other airlines don't have.  

 

Booked these tickets pre-pandemic so it is a lucky accident.  

 

I hate PAL but flew them at the end of last year and early this year back to the US.  You're right that everything is streamlined once you arrive Manila, plus getting the Covid test back to the US was really easy through them as well.  Instead of relying on an outside lab to meet the deadline, at least doing the test through PAL, if the lab was running behind schedule, PAL would help push that through so people could meet their flights.  Also, no connecting through other countries was a huge bonus as well.  All of those benefits outweighed the uncomfortable seats, horrible food, lack of entertainment, etc etc.  Also, PAL was a complete nightmare on baggage coming back to the US.  They were going to refuse my carry on bags until I told them to measure them (which they did) and they were all within limits.  Also were very picky on all of the contents.  If ever travel resumes to "normal", I will be flying other airlines back (JAL, Asiana, Eva, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Qatar, etc).  Ive refused to fly US airlines over the last 30 years, unless I get stuck with them on a domestic connecting flight.

[top_secret 2,347]

I just saw Thailand is opening Bangkok, Pattaya, Chang Mai and other tourist locations with NO QUARENTINE for vaccinated tourists who have a negative test result starting October 1.   They apparently wisely decided to save high season this year.  Like it's going to be possible to just fly into Thailand as tourist again.  Not just Phuket.  I know where we are going next month.