El Nido's Eco-Tourism Development Fee (ETDF)

Fee rates: ₱400, or ₱200 from within Palawan

The fee is ₱400 if you travelled from outside Palawan and ₱200 if you travelled from within it. Nationality does not change the rate: foreign and Filipino visitors from outside Palawan both pay from the “From outside Palawan” column. El Nido residents pay nothing.

Municipal Ordinance 01, Series of 2024 set these rates. It took effect on 1 June 2024 and raised the regular fee from ₱200 to ₱400.

The fee comes with a tourist stay, not with a tour, so you owe it whether or not you go island hopping. People in El Nido for work rather than a holiday, such as a business trip, are also exempt.

One payment covers all tourism sites in El Nido for 5 days from the date of payment. Older guides and tour listings that still say 10 days are out of date.

If you take several island-hopping tours inside those 5 days, you pay once, not once per tour. Keep the receipt with you: boat crews, site staff and hotels may ask to see it. Having it ready saves time at each check.

The student and senior/PWD rates already include the discount mandated by law. It is not applied again at the counter. The ordinance gives the children’s band as 6 to 13; the board at the Tourism Office prints 7 to 13.

Paying the fee: where and how

You pay in person: at the ETDF Building in Bagong Bayan, at the ETDF office in the town proper, or through your tour operator.

Arriving by road from Puerto Princesa or anywhere south of El Nido, stop at the ETDF Building in Bagong Bayan. It opened on 7 October 2026. It stands in El Nido’s southernmost barangay (a local administrative unit), roughly an hour and a half by road before the town proper. The municipality asks everyone travelling in from the south to pay the fee there. Vans from Puerto Princesa stop at the building, and paying takes about a minute. If you have already paid, have the official receipt ready to show.

In the town proper, you can pay at the ETDF office near the Tourism Office. Your tour operator can also collect the fee when you book. Most operators do this routinely, and they ask for it before you board.

ETDF OfficeServices

In the El Nido Map app, this place opens on its map, and the guide is there too, readable offline.

Arriving by air or by sea, pay in town or through your tour operator. The Tourism Office says more collection points are planned, at the airport and the boat port among them. As of 14 October 2026, none of them is open.

Using the building’s QR ticketing system in advance is optional. The ELNETS app, on Google Play only, fills in the ETDF form before you arrive and saves a QR code. You show that code at the online counter and skip the queue for the regular one.

Without the ELNETS app, you can fill in the same form on a tablet at the building, on your own or with a staff member. The regular counter serves anyone with neither.

The ELNETS app fills in the form and saves the QR code, but it does not take payment: you pay at the counter. Bring the fee in cash: it is the smoothest way to pay, and it keeps the stop to a minute.

• ELNETS on Google Play
• El Nido Tourism’s advisory on the ETDF Building, 6 October 2026

Fee allocation: what the money funds

The ordinance splits the fee by purpose: at least 20% to tourism infrastructure, 20% to the ETDF office and board, 10% to the 18 barangays, and smaller shares listed in the table. A management board reviews the projects the fee pays for. Its members come from the municipal and barangay governments, the tourism council and civil society.

The fee cannot pay the salaries of regular municipal staff outside the ETDF office.

As published by the municipality for Ordinance 01, Series of 2024, which amended Ordinance 005, Series of 2011.

Separate costs: tour prices and site fees

The ETDF is not part of your tour price, and it does not cover the site charges inside the tours. Big Lagoon, for example, has its own entrance fee, and kayak hire there costs extra. Budget for those as extras.