Conditions for establishing a tourist agency in Slovenia, EU

The Statistical office of Slovenia (SURS) reported that last year was a record-breaking year when it comes to personal travel. More than 1.1 million inhabitants of Slovenia have taken at least one private trip. As tourism is growing due to Slovenia’s rising popularity, opening a tourist agency in Slovenia might be a good idea for your business in Europe. But running a tourist agency also entails that you fulfill certain conditions in order to run the business in Slovenia in accordance to the legislation.

What business activities can a tourist agency do in Slovenia?

Before you start your business, you would have to open a company in Slovenia. Non-EU citizens can open an LTD company with 7.500€ founding capital.

The business activities listed in the SKD qualifier you can register within the company’s act of establishment are:

• 79.110; business activity of travel agencies (selling trip, travel packages, transportation and accommodation),
• 79.120; business activity of travel organizers (organizing and preparing travel packages, which the organizers sell themselves or through a travel agency),
• and 79.900; reservation and other travel-related business activities (reservation of transportation, car rental, selling tickets for cultural, sport or entertainment events, offering tourist information, …).

The business activity for travel agencies is regulated, which means that your company would have to obtain a license before you can start doing your business. Organizing and/or selling tourist packages means a combination or two or more pre-agreed services, which is up for sale and if the services lasts more than 24 hours or includes staying overnight.

To provide this service, you need to obtain a license which the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology can grant to the company.

What are the conditions to obtain the tourism license?

There are two separate business activities within the tourism specter that require obtaining a license. Those are business activity of organizing tourist packages and the business activity for selling tourist packages.

If you plan on organizing tourist packages, you would have to apply for the license and include the following information in your application:

• state the name of the company, registration number, business seat and contact information,
• attach proof of having appropriate business premises (except when the products are sold exclusively online),
• in case of exclusive on line sale, you have to submit a written statement, that the company provides the tourist packages only through online sale on websites,
• proof of ensuring a guarantee regarding the liability in case of liquidity issued in accordance to the Consumer Protection Act. The organizer ensures the guarantee in form of the warranty scheme of insurance with an insurance agency.

If you plan on selling tourist packages, your application will have to include;

• state the name of the company, registration number, business seat and contact information,
• attach proof of having appropriate business premises. The premises have to have an operating permit, which specifically states that the premises are allowed to do the chosen business activity,
• statement that the business premises are available for clients during the approved business hours,
• proof of ensuring a guarantee regarding the liability in case of liquidity issued in accordance to the Consumer Protection Act. This is valid for companies that sell or offer tourist packages from a travel organizer, that has a business sear outside of the European Economic Space. The company does not need to prove this condition if you can prove that the travel organizer fulfills this condition.

Register a company in Slovenia with the support of company Data d.o.o.

Data d.o.o provides full support in starting your business conduct in Slovenia.

We can assist in the company registration process. You can also register the company in our office, as we are a licensed VEM point.

Additionally, our legal department can assist you in understanding the conditions your travel agency has to fulfill to obtain the license.

Data’s professional accountancy department can make sure that your company’s books are kept in accordance to the Slovene accountancy standards. We also provide tax consultation.

If your company requires a business address, we can offer services of virtual office.

For more information on company registration in Slovenia, send us an e-mail to data@data.si. You can also contact us over the phone 00386 1 6006 270 or 00386 40 530 718 (Viber, WhatsApp). You can also follow us on Facebook.