International arrivals reached more than 20,000 since the country reopened its borders for foreign travelers on February 10.

"Our inbound arrivals from different airports in the country are now at around 24,826, based on the data of the One Health Pass," Acting Presidential Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in a Palace virtual briefing on Tuesday.

"Around 13,492 are foreigners while 11,334 are balikbayans," he said.

Based on the data presented by Nograles the highest number of foreign travelers recorded from Feb. 10 to 20, 2022 are from US with 5,754; followed by Canada with 1,356; UK with 910; Australia with 884; South Korea with 849; Vietnam with 563; Japan with 450 and Germany with 440.

"Please take note that this is just the beginning of our efforts to encourage tourists to visit the country. Our borders are already open, but we want to reiterate the importance of vaccination to revive tourism in the country," he said.

"If we want a surge of tourists instead of a surge of COVID cases, then we enjoin everyone to get vaccinated and to get their booster shots. Let us help our countrymen who are working in the tourism-related industries," he added. Robina Asido/DMS