Philippines to provide visa on arrival to Chinese tourists

The Philippines will provide a visa-on-arrival facility to the Chinese tourists this year.

Quoting Zaobao.com, the China Radio International (CRI) online reported that the remark was made by Wanda Corazon Teo, the Secretary of the Philippines' Department of Tourism.

With this, the Philippines is aiming to attract one million Chinese tourists to the country in 2017.

Besides making it easier for the Chinese tourists to get visas, the Philippines is also planning to stage more tourism promotions tailored to Chinese tourists besides increasing the number of charter flights from China to the Philippines.

According to official data recently issued by the Philippines' Department of Tourism, China had replaced Japan as the third largest source of tourists in 2016 after South Korea and the U.S.

Earlier, the relationship between the Philippines and China significantly improved after the state visit of President Rodrigo Duterte to Beijing last October where both sides agreed to move on from a bitter row over islands in the South China Sea.

His visit came months after a tribunal in the Hague ruled that Beijing did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous administration in Manila.

The move marked a reversal in foreign policy of the Philippines.