Published on : Monday, February 23, 2015
The latest visa openness report published by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) shows the Philippines scoring 84 out of 100 indicating its friendly policy towards international travelers. Procuring visas for Philippines is hassle free, which is the primary reason for its growth in tourism.
The others that made it to the top list were Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Niue and Dominica, which all scored 100, followed by Haiti (99) and Macao, China (85).
The Asia Pacific countries have made deliberate attempts to attract global tourism and have relaxed visa rules. 23 per cent of the world’s population has a visa free entry to these countries, other 23 percent can avail visa on arrival and the rest of the 5 percent use e-visa.
Southeast Asian and East African countries provide the visa on arrival facility, visa exemption and e-visa alternatives. This is the principal reason why these countries earn more from tourism.
Visa facilitation is a driving factor in stimulating economic growth and job creation through tourism felt UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai.
He also expressed that a growing number of countries are taking decisive steps to introduce friendlier visa rules for travelers. America, Asia and Pacific are the pioneers in visa facilities however there is still a lot of restriction from the Middle East and European countries.
Southeast Asia, East Africa, the Caribbean and Oceania are the most open in the sub region. With international tourism arrival said to increase to 1.8 billion by 2030, visa rules will change drastically allowing more travelers to move around freely, the principal source markets would be China, Russia, India and Brazil.
The G20 economies could boost their international tourist numbers by 122 million and generate $206 billion in tourist exports. Over five million additional jobs will be created with improved visa facilities and entry formalities, indicate a research by UNWTO and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) also predicts that southeast Asia’s visa facilitation policy would generate 26 million jobs in Apec and 650,000 jobs in the Asean.
Tags: VISA
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