THE Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) officially launched on Tuesday its online travel tax payment platform to provide outbound travelers faster, more convenient and hassle-free payment options.

TIEZA said the Online Travel Tax Services System (OTTSS) provides travelers with more than 90,000 options to pay for their travel tax nationwide, using major e-wallets and online bank transfers, debit cards and many others.

Travelers just need to visit TIEZA’s website https://tieza.gov.ph and click ‘travel tax’ on the navigation menu.

TIEZA said the payment could likewise be made through its partner MYEG’s website at www.myeg.ph.

TIEZA chief operating officer Mark Lapid said the OTTSS would help decongest airport terminals and lessen the transactions and counters that travelers need to deal with before boarding their flight.

“Now that the Philippines and other countries have more relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, we expect a spike in our number of outbound travels, especially countries such as South Korea,” he said.

With the OTTSS, Lapid is optimistic to return to their pre-pandemic collection of P7 billion in travel taxes.

“We’re hoping to be back on our pre-pandemic collection which is about P7 billion.”

The Philippine government has collected P2.3 billion in travel tax in 2022.

Data from TIEZA showed that last year’s P2.38 billion travel tax collected surpassed the combined figures from 2020 and 2021.

Due to the pandemic that resulted in lockdowns, TIEZA was only able to collect P1.23 billion in 2020 and P359 million in 2021.

“With the easement of all the restrictions that we have for outbound, together with other countries relaxing their restrictions and opening their borders, we’re expecting a higher income,” Lapid added.

The TIEZA chief also said TIEZA registered two new tourism investment projects — the Uma Residences in Naga City and Hotel Elizabeth Resorts and Villas in San Vicente, Palawan.

It also signed the expansion project by Club Paradise Resort in Coron called the Oceanview Suites 3.

The Uma Residences, with an estimated total project cost of P582.2 million, will start commercial operations in April 2023 and is expected to generate a total of 145 jobs.

Meanwhile, the P570 million Hotel Elizabeth Resorts and Villas will provide about 100 employment opportunities.

TIEZA, formerly known as the Philippine Tourism Authority, is the Department of Tourism’s implementing arm.

Its main tasks include building tourism infrastructure, designation, regulation and supervision of tourism enterprise zones (TEZ), operation and management of TIEZA assets, and the collection of Philippine Travel Tax.