Question & AnswerQ&A (Republic Act No. 10866)
Republic Act No. 10866 is officially known as the "Batanes Responsible Tourism Act."
The Act recognizes and protects the rights of indigenous cultural communities to preserve their cultures and promotes an ecologically sustainable, responsible, participative, culturally sensitive, economically viable, and equitable tourism industry.
Community-based tourism is defined as tourism where the local community and residents have substantial control and involvement in the development and management of tourism, with a greater proportion of economic gains remaining within the community.
The key objectives include promoting responsible community-based ecological-cultural tourism, conserving biodiversity and heritage, generating local employment and livelihood, equitable financial benefit distribution, ensuring educational tourism programs, and securing local community needs in water, food, energy, and materials.
The Act covers the same boundaries as those provided in Section 3 of Republic Act No. 8991, also known as the "Batanes Protected Area Act of 2000."
The main agencies are the Department of Tourism (DOT), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), along with provincial and municipal governments and other relevant national agencies.
Responsible ecotourism refers to sustainable tourism where both the tourism sector and tourists take responsibility to protect and respect the environment and local culture, fostering community participation and economic benefits for local people.
The plan must include carrying capacity of sites, specific site assessments, strategic priorities, income-generating product development, capacity-building for local management, support for local production groups and marketing strategies that reflect Batanes' integrity.
They assist in formulating local tourism standards focusing on environmental stability, recommend guidelines for biodiversity conservation, raise stakeholder capacity, ensure optimal resource use, reduce waste, and encourage the use of local products and employment.
The implementing rules and regulations must be promulgated within sixty (60) days from the effectivity of the Act.