The Department of Tourism (DOT) has arranged additional sweeper flights to facilitate the return of stranded tourists to their home countries within the next few days.

 DOT Region 3 Office has assisted at least 141 foreign travelers remaining in various locations in Central Luzon to reach either Clark International Airport in Pampanga or the NAIA in Manila for possible flights to their respective country destinations or for P2P bus rides to NAIA in Manila for their transfer flights home abroad.

To date, 28 foreign tourists have successfully flown back to their respective countries.

Scheduled flights out of Clark include trips to Incheon, Korea on March 26 and 28, and to Doha via Qatar Airways on March 26.

Within the week, DOT3 Office assisted 162 domestic tourists stranded in various sites as Baler, Aurora, Bulacan, Pampanga and other areas. Assistance were also extended to least 195 (inbound/outbound) overseas Filipino workers stranded at Clark.

As of March 25, the DOT regional office has attended to 247 international tourists of diverse nationalities and 60 domestic travelers after being stranded while visiting Central Luzon areas when the government imposed the enhanced community quarantine in the entire Luzon island region.

In coordination with the Austrian Embassy, eight of 16 Austrians signed up for a repatriation flight back home while the rest opted to remain in the country. Repatriation flights were also made available by the German and Russian embassies to their stranded citizens.  At least 14 German and three Russian tourists, however, chose to remain in the country for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine period scheduled to end April 14, 2020.

The DOT3 also reported that repatriation of at least 23 Australians is also being requested with the Australian Embassy.