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Seventy six hotels in Metro Manila applied to shift from quarantine to regular hotels as the government eased travel restrictions and reopened the country for international travelers.

"Right now we have an application for 76 hotels who want to convert to a regular hotel, we already have 76," Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said at a press briefing in Manila on Wednesday.

"When we announced on January 28, the total quarantine rooms were about 15,905 quarantine rooms, only 76 applied to a shift from quarantine to regular hotels in NCR," she said.

Puyat said despite the reopening of international travel, it will take time before a lot of things will go back to normal.

"Because everybody thought when we open on February 10, the arrivals will surge. It will take time like some markets will come here during the school break of their children or they will have to file their leave," she said.

"It depends on the market. Some will come in June, some in April but there are markets. They go all year round so as others mention, the arrivals will not surge immediately but what is important is we are open," she added.

Puyat said returning overseas Filipinos workers are expected to be the first to arrive in the country.

"If they want to come home, they will come. They will probably be the first to come because they are wanting to come home without quarantine, not to waste their leaves when they are on quarantine," she said. Robina Asido/DMS