Tourists flock to SFO to get free vaccines

• San Francisco International Airport saw a rise in tourism as hundreds of tourists rushed to get their free vaccines at the clinic.
• Tourists shared that it was difficult to get the vaccine in their home countries so they decided to take the trip.
• An SFO spokesperson shared that about 80% of the new vaccine appointments in their clinic were from non-U.S. citizens.

San Francisco saw an influx of tourists, but not for the usual reasons of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge or Fisherman’s Wharf. It was because hundreds of tourists had flocked into SFO to get their free vaccines.

Tourist Roqzanne Tan shared that she couldn’t get the vaccine in her home country so she decided to travel over 15 hours to San Francisco.

“It’s hard to get a vaccine in the Philippines so it’s easier to just come here and you are hitting two birds at a time,” she said. “You are getting around as a tourist and at the same time you are getting vaccinated. It’s easy.”

She was able to easily get the vaccine in a CVS.

Other tourists flocked to the SFO clinic to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

SFO Spokesperson Doug Yakel shared that around “80% of the new appointments” made in their clinic “are actually non-U.S. citizens.”

Over 1,000 vaccines have been administered at SFO to tourists from 58 countries since May. The majority of them traveled from Mexico and Taiwan.

Mexican tourist Israel Gomez explained, “Because in Mexico there is no plan. In Mexico they are very slow, they work slow.”

After becoming an unexpected vaccination hub, SFO decided to tailor its website to market incentivized travel.

Yakel added that the influx also “allows these Johnson & Johnson doses to go to good use. It allows them to not go to waste.”

Travel agent Edward Siu from Classic Tours shared that despite the high price tag, multiple callers have inquired about the travel incentives.

Siu said, “It’s costing them only about $4,000 – $5,000 that is the most.” Still, many tourists consider it worth it as their home countries experience renewed surges of cases.

While SFO hopes to boost the economy by offering vaccine accessibility, Siu remarked that getting one dose is not enough time.

Siu pointed out that only hotels and airlines take some advantage, especially when some visitors “are not taking the tours because they take the vaccine and they go.”

Still, word of the free vaccines has traveled far.

When asked if she knows someone else who did the same thing, Roqzanne Tan shared, “Yeah, my friend went here with me to get a vaccine as well but she went back to the Philippines.”

Source: ABC 7 News