Up to 50 percent subsidy!
Safe to say that everyone misses the outside world. When asked what they would like to do first when the world is cleared of this pandemic, it would be to travel and see new sights. Tourism, admittedly, is also one of the first to be hit the hardest.
Since the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) has allowed leisure travel for all ages between the NCR Plus bubble and those areas within the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ). This has led the Department of Tourism (DOT) to reveal that they are resuming subsidy of RT-PCR testing for qualified domestic tourists. Fifty percent will be shouldered, and this will be in collaboration with the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat shares, "The Philippine tourism industry has been adversely affected by the pandemic. The subsidy aims to encourage domestic travel by aiding the tourists in fulfilling the RT-PCR test requirement, and to enable them to visit their destination of choice at a lesser cost."
One way of bringing back the Philippine economy back to its feet is to boost tourism. “We at the DOT are doing whatever we can to help the industry and its stakeholders recoup their losses and ensure security and sustainability amid this pandemic.
The University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) in Manila and the Philippine Children's Medical Center (PCMC) in Quezon City are the accredited laboratories who will offer the subsidy. The requirement? Domestic tourists who have confirmed round trip tickets and booking confirmation with a DOT-accredited accommodation establishment. It has also been revealed that the whole subsidy allocation is P35.17 million for 2021.
Visit https://www.tpb.gov.ph/rtpcrphtravel/ to apply for the 50 percent RT-PCR test subsidy. Applicable only for local tourists.