‘Green Lane’ for fully vaccinated travellers proposed

DAVAO CITY - The Department of Tourism (DOT) has proposed the possibility of setting up a “Green Lane” that will facilitate the entry of foreign visitors who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as part of the government’s effort to reopen the economy.

DOT Secretary Bernadette Puyat 

The Green Lane will make it easier for fully vaccinated travellers to visit the country for leisure as quarantine rules are being relaxed with the progress of the vaccination worldwide.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Puyat raised this proposal with the national government’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID), and said she is optimistic about the prospect.

“The Green Lane will pave the way for the reopening of our tourist destinations to leisure travellers who are now fully vaccinated. It will give the jobs back to many of our tourism workers and gradually revive the tourism industry under safe conditions,” she said.

Her proposal was also in response to the IATF-MEID which the DOT and several other government agencies to explore protocols for inbound international travel for fully vaccinated individuals.

Headed by the DOT and the Department of Foreign Affairs, a small working group has been formed to evaluate the possibility of implementing “green lanes” and formulate protocols therefor.

The group also includes the Bureau of Quarantine, the Bureau of Immigration, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Department of Transportation, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Department of Trade and Industry.

Puyat said several countries have already opened up their major destinations to fully vaccinated foreign travellers. “We must keep pace with our neighbors and the rest of the world in slowly reopening our tourist destinations. We must be ready for the visitors when the whole world is ready to safely travel again,” she said. (Malou Cablinda and Rhoderick Benez)

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