COMENDADOR
Traveling outside the country with the whole family can be very expensive, that’s why most people would wait for cheap and promo airfares.
But while they save on airfare, there’s something that they always have to pay for — travel tax.
“The travel tax is really hard on the pocket. It is very expensive. For the four of us in the family, we have to spend P6,480 on top of our airfare. That’s why we prefer to travel for more than three days so that the travel tax will be worth it,” said 26-year-old Kristie Malenn Auxilio.
The project management officer analyst of an IT and consulting company said they would usually avail of promo airfare between P4,000 to P6,000 when their family of four travel abroad.
CTTA president
Her thoughts were echoed by the Cebu Travel and Tour Association (CTTA) President Alan Carvajal who supported the proposal of AirAsia Philippines for the government to scrap the travel tax it collects from Filipinos going out of the country.
While he said he understands that the government needs taxes, Carvajal said the amount is too much.
“I am in agreement to the proposal to scrap the travel tax to ease up the burden of the riding public. If you translate that P1,620 to dollars, it will be about 32 to 33 dollars. That is still a substantial amount. If the money is not put into good use, might as well scrap it,” he said.
The CTTA is a group of travel agents that cater to outbound tourists or Cebuanos that go outside of Cebu to the other parts of the country, or abroad.
Even if those planning to go abroad have kept in mind the need to pay for travel tax, he said it can still be disappointing on their part especially those that are trying to save money by availing of cheaper flights.
Terminal fee
In Cebu, aside from the travel tax, people also have to pay another P750 as terminal fee for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).
But Carvajal said he does not see a need to remove the terminal fee especially with the very noticeable changes and improvements in the MCIA.
AirAsia Philippines CEO Dexter Comendador earlier explained that they have been pushing for the removal of the travel tax since last year. Aside from travel taxes, the low-cost airline is also asking government to waive some of their fees like landing fees, ground-handling fees, among others.
“If we are able to pay lesser fees and save on our operations, this means we can translate this to cheaper flights for the public,” said Comendador who was recently in Cebu to launch their new and first direct flights from Cebu to mainland China starting next month with Cebu to Shenzen.
Passengers’ concern
He also said he understood the concern of some passengers who have to spend thousands already even before they are able to leave Cebu or other parts of the country going overseas, especially for families and large groups.
The proposal was already submitted by the airline to the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Department of Tourism (DOT), Department of Finance (DOF) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) last year.
Included in their proposal was a study made that if travel tax and airport taxes are removed, based on computations for AirAsia alone, it would only mean a P3 billion loss on the part of government for a period of five years.
“But if you look at the number of tourists you can bring and other tourism related expenses, there will be a net revenue of P299 billion for the entire Philippines,” Comendador said about their study.
travel tax
The travel tax is mandated under the Tourism Act of 2009. The law provides that 50 percent of the collection would go to the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) while 40 percent goes to the Commission on Higher Education.
Departing passengers have to pay P1,620 for economy class and P2,700 for first class seats. Overseas Filipino workers, Filipinos with permanent residency abroad staying in the Philippines for less than a year, and children below two years of age are exempted from the tax.
So far, Comendador said the different departments are already discussing their proposal.
He said there was even a suggestion to transfer the travel tax to incoming tourists instead at P500. But they suggested against it as it could cause other problems especially for inbound tourists.