The Philippines is set to reopen to fully jabbed leisure travellers on February 10.

The country had initially planned to reopen last December but did not go ahead with this plan due to the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The southeast Asian country will accept tourists from 157 visa-free countries, including the UK and Ireland. Leisure travellers will need to provide proof of full vaccination as well as a negative PCR test result undertaken no more than 48 hours before departure.

Travellers must have passports that are valid for at least six months at the time of arrival, and they must also have outbound tickets to their country of origin or next country of destination.

Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat announced in a statement:

“We at the DOT are very thankful to our partners in the IATF-EID [the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] for approving our proposal to allow the entry of foreign leisure travelers.

“The Department sees this as a welcome development that will contribute significantly to job restoration, primarily in tourism-dependent communities, and in the reopening of businesses that have earlier shut down during the pandemic.

“We are confident that we will be able to keep pace with our Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbours who have already made similar strides to reopen to foreign tourists.”