House panel readies review of travel tax
The House of Representatives is set to review how billions of pesos in travel tax collections have been spent to see whether the funds were truly reaching the areas that need them most.
This was according to House tourism committee vice chair and Palawan Rep. Gil Acosta, who said lawmakers should examine both prepandemic and postpandemic use of travel tax revenues to determine if they were properly allocated and whether they translated into tangible improvements for the tourism industry.
During a press conference, Acosta said travel tax collections averaged about P4 billion to P5 billion annually, with proceeds distributed among the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, the Commission on Higher Education and the cultural sector.
Acosta noted that collections sharply declined from 2020 to 2023 due to pandemic-related 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,” he said.
While acknowledging efforts by the Department of Tourism, Acosta said government-built facilities remain limited in provinces that are aggressively promoted as major destinations.
In Palawan, 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, only emphasized the need to revisit how travel tax revenues are allocated.
Decades-old measure
Acosta said the tourism committee plans to examine these concerns amid broader debates on whether the decades-old travel tax should be reformed or scrapped altogether.
Several measures are pending before the committee, including House Bill No. 7443 filed by House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, which seeks the abolition of the travel tax imposed under Presidential Decree No. 1183 and related provisions of the Tourism Act of 2009.
Under the bill, the travel tax—which currently reaches P2,700 for first-class passengers and P1,620 for economy travelers—would be repealed.
Acosta said the levy has become one of the factors driving up the cost of travel in the Philippines, placing the country at a disadvantage compared with its neighbors in Southeast Asia.
“Among Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, we’re basically the only one left with an outgoing travel tax,” Acosta 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 often making it cheaper for Filipinos to travel abroad than to local destinations.
