The Board of Investments said Thursday it approved the provision of incentives for tourism and tourism-related industries seeking to upgrade and modernize facilities to raise the safety and wellness standards in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We recognize that the tourism sector has been one of the worst affected of all the major sectors of the economy due to the current health crisis. By way of providing investment incentives, we hope the sector, which was a major driver of the economy’s growth pre-Covid-19, will stay afloat, continue their business operations, and recover the soonest they can,” said Trade Secretary and BOI Chairman Ramon Lopez.
The agency agreed to provide income tax holiday for a period of three years and duty-free importation of capital equipment to tourism projects with plans to upgrade facilities in relation to COVID health protocol.
“Tourist accommodation facilities who would like to undertake improvements to make their facilities COVID-proof may consider registration of such with the BOI as modernization projects subject to qualification requirements,” Lopez said.
Tourism enterprises that are eligible to apply for investment incentives include hotels and resorts, meetings, international conventions, and events facilities and tourist transport companies nationwide, including those in Boracay.
For tourist transport, these should be locally-assembled vehicles with sanitation features. The motor vehicles to be acquired or to be upgraded/modernized will have such sanitation and hygiene features including but not limited to barriers, payment portals, deionizers, seat organizers for sanitation kits, and other features that would promote physical distancing.
Examples of renovations/upgrade that can qualify for such tax incentives include renovation of guestrooms, food and beverage outlets, function/meeting rooms, recreation areas and/or other common areas; investment in new or upgrade of laundry, kitchen, housekeeping, employee facilities and other back of house facilities; building of full, partial or movable partitions; and installation of built-in thermal scanners, hygiene gates, and/or booths.
Also included are upgrade or improvement of ventilation, air conditioning, air filtration systems, water systems, water treatment facilities; a mobile check-in system; non-touch or no contact door lock systems and non-touch control panels in elevators and other areas.