2023-03-08
The Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) warns the public against transacting with nonaccredited travel agencies putting out advertisements on various social media platforms.
Various reports have been received by the Department of Tourism on the proliferation of nonaccredited entities that are advertising services in different social media platforms for airline ticketing, travel and tours arrangement, hotel booking and training offerings for travel business management. The public is hereby warned to be vigilant in dealing with these entities as there can be no guarantee on the reliability and legitimacy of their products and services.
It should be noted that there are only select training centers that are accredited in offering courses for putting up travel agencies and other tourism-related services. In addition, all travel agencies/ tour operators, including online bookings, are covered under the DOT Accreditation Law provided in Republic Act 9593 otherwise known as the “Tourism Act of 2009” and supported by the Department of Interior and Local Government Memorandum Circular 2019-17 requiring accreditation before issuance of business permits. Non-compliance to the provisions thereof is punishable by law.”
The tourism department strongly advises the public to transact business only with accredited travel and tour agencies, and accredited training centers. Entities with valid and existing accreditation with the Department of Tourism have informative websites and/or online pages bearing the DOT’s quality seal and their corresponding accreditation number with validity. Hence, travelers could gauge the authenticity of the travel agency by checking the tourism quality seal displayed at their offices, websites, and social media accounts.
Travelers may verify the legitimacy of the travel and tour companies by visiting DOT’s database online at https://beta.tourism.gov.ph/accreditations or by communicating with the DOT regional offices whose contact details may be found at https://beta.tourism.gov.ph/contact-us.
We advise the traveling public to make sure they choose DOT-accredited facilities and tour services to receive the quality of service and be protected from bogus transactions.