Today, just like in every other field, services in tourism are provided online. We have gathered the necessary steps for those wishing to establish an online travel agency in this blog post. Additionally, you can check out our Q&A video with Demir Arkman on topics such as competition among agencies, ticket sales, data storage, and security standards.
What Type Will Your Travel Agency Be?
There are three types of travel agencies.
Type A Travel Agencies: These are the most comprehensive travel agencies, and they can provide all services under tourism.
Type B Travel Agencies: They sell tickets for existing services such as tours and trips. They can sell domestic and international tickets.
Type C Travel Agencies: They can only organize tours for citizens of the Republic of Turkey within Turkey.
When applying, you need to determine the type of your agency, and the required registration fee also varies between types.
Legal Process
First, the agency must be approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. You can reach the petition and required documents to be submitted personally or by mail to the general document section of the ministry from the ministry's page.
Agencies that receive approval from the ministry must apply to TÜRSAB without wasting time. The petition and documents required for this application can be accessed from this link.
The fees specified on TÜRSAB's page are as follows:
• For Group A: 7,000.00 TL (Seven thousand Turkish Lira)
• For Group B: 6,000.00 TL (Six thousand Turkish Lira)
• For Group C: 5,000.00 TL (Five thousand Turkish Lira)
and for each branch, this amount must be 25%.
The person applying to TÜRSAB must be authorized by the legal entity. During the application, this person is required to present a document proving their authority.
Applications approved by TÜRSAB are communicated to the ministry by TÜRSAB. Applications found to be complete receive official approval.
During the application process, if there are missing or inadequate documents, the application may be returned to TÜRSAB. In this case, the deficiencies must be completed and re-submitted within a month. In cases of delay, the application will be canceled. If missing documents are not completed, members will get a refund of the fees they paid.
Throughout the process, to check the status of your application, you can query from this address. TÜRSAB and the Ministry will also communicate in writing for updates such as the required documents.
Once this process is completed, you will receive an agency operating certificate and can officially start your activities.
You Established Your Agency, What's Next?
Depending on your agency type, the services you will likely offer are; hotel reservations, plane and bus tickets, tour and vacation packages, car rentals, etc. To successfully market these services, you should determine your digital marketing strategy. For this, you need to set up an easy-to-use website and utilize social media posts, advertisements, and SEO-aware blogs to drive traffic to this site.
Depending on your marketing budget and target audience, you can make certain investments in these actions. Google Ads and Meta ads are the most preferred digital advertising platforms. You may particularly target Instagram for tourism services. Additionally, reaching out to tourism influencers to establish a sponsorship agreement can help gain the trust of your target audience directly.
You can promote your brand name by sharing on social media and blogs. To ensure blogs rank high in search engines and attract traffic, we definitely recommend following current SEO strategies or seeking help from an expert.
You can contact us for your needs regarding the site and domain you will use for marketing and service sales. For an organic marketing strategy, you can check out our articles related to the PlusClouds Partner Ecosystem.
