Vice guv lauds Tourism Act
BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan – The Tourism Act of 2007 would immensely supports the tourism industry and generates more jobs and investments, said Aklan Vice Gov. Ronquillo Tolentino.
The law ensures government agencies to work together in building the physical and legal infrastructure for global tourism by empowering the public and private sectors, he added.
“We are about to pass the Aklan Tourism Code that would spur further investments in the tourism industry. The need for a Tourism Act had been answered appropriately with its timely passage,” the vice governor said.
The Tourism Act of 2007 authored by Sen. Richard Gordon aims to uplift the standards of tourism services, to aggressively promote our tourism industry’s strong points and to develop existing and new tourism destinations in the Philippines.
Every foreign tourist spends 50,000 pesos in shopping, eating, touring and staying at resorts. On an average year, 2.6 million foreign tourists give the Philippine economy P130 billion, Gordon said.
With the approval of the Tourism Act, Tolentino stressed, the island of Boracay could benefit with the tourism promotion and development efforts to generate more revenues to finance infrastructure projects.
"This would strengthen the tourism industry, attract more investments in our province and encourages the public and private sectors to support tourism development," he added.
The Tourism Act also seeks to encourage investments in new hotels, resorts and other tourism enterprises through tax breaks and fast, friendly and efficient governance to truly create world-class establishments in the country with the creation of Tourism Philippines Corporation.