The Global Tourism Business Association Inc. (GTBA) is calling on the Japanese Embassy to intervene in a persistent shortage of appointment slots for visa processing, warning the situation is disrupting travel plans and weighing on the Philippine tourism industry.
GTBA founding chairman Michelle Taylan said accredited travel agencies were informed by VFS Global, the embassy’s official partner for scheduling, that the next available slots have been pushed to April. This leaves no available appointments on the VFS system for applicants based in Metro Manila.
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Taylan said the association is asking the embassy to open more slots for Metro Manila, questioning the effectiveness of the current procedure if applicants cannot secure timing.
She said the role of VFS is to facilitate applications and that such facilitation is not currently happening.
The association reported that its members have exhausted options including traveling to Cebu or Davao to find openings.
Even travelers with itineraries scheduled for March 2025 are unable to book slots because the earliest dates on the VFS website have already shifted to April, she said.
Taylan cited an instance where a travel group scheduled to depart on March 15 applied as early as January but was still assigned an April appointment.
She warned that the bottleneck results in a loss of potential travel tax revenue for the government and may force clients to choose different destinations due to the uncertainty.
While raising these concerns, Taylan clarified that the GTBA is not singling out VFS Global for criticism but wants both the service provider and the embassy to take corrective action.
She said the organization intends to help address the issues rather than simply complain.
Japan continues to be a top destination for Filipino travelers, particularly during the winter months from December to February.
Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) data showed foreign arrivals to Japan rose 17.6 percent year-on-year to 3.89 million in October 2025, bringing total inbound visitors for the first 10 months of the year to 35.55 million.
Mainland China accounted for the largest share of arrivals at about 8.2 million visitors, up 40.7 percent from the previous year.
Filipino arrivals to Japan increased in the first quarter of 2025 to an estimated 211,200, representing a 5.2 percent rise from the same period in 2024.
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