MANILA, Philippines – Are you looking to visit Taiwan? Good news: Filipinos can still fly there visa-free until July 2024.

Taiwan announced on Friday, June 30, a one-year extension of visa-free entry for nationals of the Philippines, Brunei, and Thailand from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024. Visa-free travel for Filipinos – which was announced last year – was initially set to expire on July 31, 2023.

“I cordially invite all Filipino friends to come and join us in exploring Taiwan’s beauty, especially with the 14-day visa-free program, which is officially announced today to be extended for another year,” Wallace Minn-Gan Chow, representative for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines, said on Friday.

Visa-free entry for Philippine passport holders is allowed for up to 14 days, provided that they have the following before traveling to Taiwan:

• proof of accommodations
• contact details of host or sponsor
• sufficient travel funds

Since the reopening of borders in Taiwan on October 13, 2022, the number of visitors from the Philippines to Taiwan has been growing. The number of Filipino tourists has already begun to exceed pre-pandemic levels, with the island welcoming 60,723 arrivals in the first quarter of 2023, 50% higher than the number of visitors in Q1 2019.

(READ: Taiwan ramps up tourism drive in Philippines as borders reopen)

“We have seen great potential in this tourism partnership. For Taiwan, the Philippines is the geographically closest country,” Chow said. “With this proximity and similarities, there are now around 116 weekly flights between our countries.”

In the continued recovery of tourism in 2023, Taiwan is hoping to bring in more than 320,000 visitors from the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Silvestre Bello, chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, said the extension of the visa-free entry policy will “further enhance trade and friendly relations between our countries.”

Bello added that “this will benefit the more than 170,000 Filipinos working and staying in Taiwan. It’s medium term advantage will be the expansion of the labor market for Filipino workers.” – Rappler.com