Creation and Regulation of Tourism Board

Section 2 requires the Board to coordinate the activities of all government agencies concerned with international travel and tourism.
Section 2 mandates the Board to remove unnecessary barriers to travel and to promote the integration and simplification of travel regulations and requirements, with efficient, fair, and courteous enforcement for expeditious, pleasant, and hospitable reception of tourists and visitors.
Section 2 directs the Board to develop tourist attractions and to provide and maintain essential facilities for tourists and travelers where private enterprise is not prepared to take care of them.
Section 2 requires the Board to organize and support a promotion and publicity program aimed at attracting people abroad to visit the Philippines, patronize things Philippine, and enhance the prestige of the Filipino people and the Republic.
Section 2 empowers the Board to regulate and license travel agents.
Section 2 requires the Board to exercise supervision over the operation of facilities and services that cater to or relate to foreign travelers and tourists, ensuring highest possible standards, reasonable charges, courtesy, honesty, and efficiency.

Section 3 requires collection of a tax on all fares of passengers leaving the country, and also on fares for returning or coming in if payable here.
Section 3 sets the tax rates based on passage cost:
- If passage costs not more than sixty pesos: seven pesos and fifty centavos.
- If passage costs more than sixty pesos and not more than one hundred twenty pesos: twelve pesos.
- If passage costs more than one hundred twenty pesos and not more than two hundred and fifty pesos: fifteen pesos.
- If passage costs more than two hundred and fifty pesos and not more than five hundred pesos: thirty pesos.
- If passage costs more than five hundred pesos and not more one thousand pesos: fifty pesos.
- If passage costs more than one thousand pesos: one hundred pesos.
Section 3 repeals Section 228 of Commonwealth Act No. 466, as amended.

Section 4 requires the tax to be collected from passengers by carriers and travel agencies issuing foreign travel passenger tickets.
Section 4 requires carriers and travel agencies to remit collections within the first ten days of every succeeding quarter to the Board of Travel and Tourist Industry.

Section 5 provides that not in excess of 50 per cent of collections accrue to the Board’s funds, to be spent exclusively for:
- development of tourist facilities, and
- promotion of tourism both within the country and abroad,
- through well-known media, especially foreign publicity and advertising.
Section 5 provides that the other fifty percent accrues to the general funds of the Government, and must be accounted for and delivered by the Board to the Treasurer of the Philippines.
Section 5 also authorizes accrual to the Board of “all those which may be effected under section six” (in addition to the passenger fare tax collections).

Section 6 requires the Board to regulate the travel agency business by prescribing rules governing establishment and operation.
Section 6 requires the Board to fix and collect an annual license fee from every individual or group engaged in travel agency business in an amount not in excess one hundred pesos a year.
Section 6 prohibits any individual or firm engaged in travel agency business from operating without being licensed by the Board of Travel and Tourist Industry.

Section 7 requires the Board, in exercising supervisory powers, to prescribe rules and regulations for the operation and maintenance of facilities and services catering to or related to foreign travelers and tourists.
Section 7 provides that when there is non-compliance with these rules and regulations, the Board must take necessary steps to cancel or recommend cancellation of permits of offending parties.
Section 7 authorizes the Board to pursue prosecution where warranted.

Section 8 provides that to strengthen the Philippines’ competitive position in international tourism, the President of the Philippines, upon recommendation of the Board, may:
- (a) suspend the payment of visa and visa application fees for foreign tourists and travelers coming to the Philippines;
- (b) exempt foreign tourists and travelers from payment of taxes on food, drinks, cigars and cigarettes consumed by them, and from amusement taxes during their stay;
- (c) allow foreign visitors and travelers leaving the country to carry with them, or have mailed or shipped for them within sixty days of departure, free of export licenses, taxes or fees, locally purchased Philippine souvenir or gift goods when the value does not exceed one thousand pesos;
- (d) transfer to the Board the control and supervision of any helpful facilities, services, rights, and properties (real or personal) owned, operated, or maintained by other government agencies or instrumentalities.

Section 9 identifies the Philippine Tourist and Travel Association, Inc. as the instrumentality of the Board in carrying out the objectives of the Act.
Section 9 recognizes that the Association’s charter is Republic Act Numbered Seven hundred and ten, and it is designated as the exclusive agency of the government in the promotion of the tourist industry.

Section 10 requires the Board to pass upon the requirements of the Association.
Section 10 authorizes the Board to make available from revenues provided for in sections five and six such sums as may be necessary for carrying out the Association’s program of activities.

Section 11 requires the Board to submit to Congress a verified detailed report five days before the opening of the regular sessions of Congress.
Section 11 mandates that the report include: the Board’s collections, disbursements, and activities, including those of the Philippine Tourist and Travel Association, Inc., and the Board’s accomplishments.
Section 11 requires submission of a copy of the plantilla as of December thirty-first of the year immediately preceding.

Section 12 repeals all provisions of law contrary to the Act or inconsistent with its aims and objectives.
Section 13 provides that the Act takes effect upon its approval.