The government has plans to ease the visa requirements for Chinese tourists, even to the extent of granting their visa on-the-spot on the day of their arrival in the Philippines.

Newly appointed Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago “Chito” Sta. Romana noted that President Duterte and China President Xi Jinping signed a cooperation agreement in Beijing last month.

This agreement, believed to be on mutually beneficial terms, would boost tourism of both countries.

“One measure under study is to relax visa requirements for tourists, including possibility of issuing visa on arrival,” Sta. Romana said.

In yet another move to repair strained relations with Beijing, he told reporters at the sidelines of last week’s China-Philippines dialogue held at the Peninsula Hotel, Makati City, that visa requirements for Chinese tourists could be relaxed to encourage them to visit the country.

He said there is an ongoing bilateral consultation between the two countries on visa facilitation schemes.

The ambassador explained that visa requirements for Chinese tourists when relaxed would necessitate Beijing to extend the same privilege to Filipino travellers to China.

“We would like to have the same access to travel as the Chinese,” he said.

Data from the website of China National Tourism Administration showed that the Philippines ranked 11th in top source travel markets of China, with more than a million arrivals.

Last year, the number of Chinese that arrived in the Philippines was 490,841, or 24.28 percent higher than the 394,951 recorded arrivals in 2014.

“There are more Philippine tourists now to China so we want first to balance that and to hit it. The Chinese are talking about one million tourist target,” he said.

Sta. Romana said the possibility of granting special visa arrangements for the Chinese still depends on the outcome of the talks between China and the Philippines.

“This will depend on the discussion if it is possible,” he said.