DOT, DICT help improve e-Arrival Card

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) alongside the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) helped fine-tune the electronic arrival card (e-Arrival Card) to be used by inbound travelers after replacing the cumbersome One Health Pass, the agency reported.

In a statement issued yesterday, DOT said it pushed to “make the e-Arrival Card aesthetically appealing” by using Philippine scenery and neutral colors in the design.

The e-Arrival Card’s registration page, found at website www.onehealthpass.com.ph, “also utilizes sectioned fields instead of a single long web page.” The items to be answered for the card relating to tourism have been reduced from 20 to “less than 10.”

The DOT and DICT would continue to improve the e-Arrival Card, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco said.

“We at the DOT look forward to continuing this synergistic approach to the improvement of the overall tourist experience through close collaboration with our partner national government agencies under the guidance of President Marcos. Our shared aspiration is to provide travelers with better and stress-free services through continuous improvement of tourism enabling mechanisms in the country, digitalization and liberalized entry protocols that provide the least inconvenience to travelers and convey that the Philippines is open and ready to receive travelers,” she said.

The e-Arrival Card replaced the One Health Pass that travelers were obliged to fill up before entering the Philippines. Travelers had complained about the inconvenience in accomplishing the One Health Pass, which required disclosure of much information.

This time, the e-Arrival Card will generate a QR code to be scanned by Bureau of Quarantine personnel in airports.