MANILA: The House of Representatives is set to review how travel tax collections averaging about P4 billion to P5 billion annually have been spent, amid questions on whether the funds reached areas most in need of tourism development.
House tourism committee vice chair and Palawan Rep Gil Acosta said lawmakers should examine both pre-pandemic and post-pandemic use of the revenues to determine whether these were properly allocated and resulted in tangible improvements for the tourism industry.
During a press conference, Acosta said the travel tax proceeds are allocated among the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, the Commission on Higher Education, and the cultural sector.
He noted a sharp decline in collections from 2020 to 2023 due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, making it more important to reassess how funds were used in earlier years and what impact they had on tourism development.
“These are issues that Congress needs to look into closely,” Acosta said.
While acknowledging efforts by the Department of Tourism, Acosta said government-built tourism facilities remain limited in provinces heavily promoted as major destinations.
In Palawan, which is often cited as one of the country’s premier island destinations, Acosta said there are only two government-built tourism comfort room facilities—one in the north and one in the south of the province.
This gap between Palawan’s global reputation and the actual state of its infrastructure, he said, underscored the need to revisit how travel tax revenues are allocated.
Acosta said the tourism committee plans to take up these concerns as part of broader discussions on whether the decades-old travel tax should be reformed or scrapped.
Several measures are pending before the committee, including House Bill No. 7443 filed by House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, which seeks to abolish the travel tax imposed under Presidential Decree No. 1183 and related provisions of the Tourism Act of 2009.
Under the bill, the travel tax—currently set at P2,700 for first-class passengers and P1,620 for economy travellers—would be repealed.
Acosta said the levy has become one of the factors driving up the cost of travel in the Philippines, putting the country at a disadvantage compared with its South-East Asian neighbours.
“Among Asean countries, we’re basically the only one left with an outgoing travel tax,” he said. “It adds to the cost. It may not be the main reason tourism numbers are low, but it is definitely one of the causes.”
The Palawan lawmaker said the policy, introduced in 1977, no longer reflects present-day realities, particularly as travel has become more accessible and, in many cases, work-related rather than a luxury.
He also said high travel costs affect domestic tourism, with airfare abroad sometimes cheaper than flights to local destinations. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
