State Dining Room, Malacañan Palace
August 24, 2023

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. convened the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) for a meeting on updates in the tourism sector at the State Dining Room in Malacañan Palace.

Mr. Lance Gokongwei (Chief Executive Officer [CEO], JG Summit Holdings, Inc.) opened the meeting with a year-in review encompassing the Administration’s significant deliverables in improving a tourist’s journey to the Philippines, such as the implementation of holiday economics through Presidential Proclamation No. 90, s. 2022 and launching of the e-travel portal that folds all required information on customs, immigration and health into one convenient e-form, among others.

Noting that travel and tourism are key drivers of the economy, the PSAC Tourism Sector presented its new recommendations to further improve the tourism experience in the country. As such, the Council proposed for the continued improvement of airports and immigration experience, and strengthen niche tourism sectors, particularly the education tourism (such as standardizing the information on student visa requirements and application procedure, benchmarking application process with other countries in Southeast Asia, allowing online submission of student visa applications and others) and the work/digital nomads tourism, referring to the trend of hybrid work set-up where workers utilize technology to work remotely simply with a stable internet connection. Among the countries with digital nomad visas are Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

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