IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING THE AMENDMENTS TO THE TOURIST GUIDING PROFESSION LAW

Dear Members,

As it is known, the Law Proposal on the Amendment of the Tourist Guidance Profession Law and the Law on Travel Agencies and the Association of Travel Agencies was submitted to the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 09.02.2024 and referred to the Commission on Public Works, Zoning, Transportation and Tourism. At the 14.02.2024 dated Commission meeting, the Law proposal was accepted by the commission as follows and sent to the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for final discussion.

In summary in the text of the proposal accepted at the Commission Meeting dated 14.02.2024;

• Regulations are made on issues such as the conditions for admission to the profession, training, and exams for tourist guides;
• It is stipulated that if the tour participants know Turkish and request it, the guide can perform his/her profession in Turkish, other than foreign languages;
• Sanctions are introduced to prevent the provision of benefits in return for sending customers to a certain business for shopping purposes by tourist guides or travel agencies without their knowledge and consent;
• Sanctions to be imposed in case of guiding without a license are determined;
• Guides are required to take a foreign language proficiency exam every five years; those who fail the exam can continue to practice their profession as Turkish tourist guides;
• There were regulations to abolish the obligation to have guides outside museums and archaeological sites.

On 16.04.2024, the Law Proposal No. 28 was placed on the agenda of the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and started to be discussed on the same date and the discussion was completed at the General Assembly Meeting on 17.04.2024.  

The 11th article of the Law Proposal, which was accepted in the Commission, regarding "Tourist Guiding services to be provided only in museums, ruins and registered cultural assets", was removed from the text of the proposal as a result of the adoption of the motions submitted by JDP, RPP and DEM Party during the General Assembly discussions, and all other articles except the 11th article were accepted by the General Assembly.

The articles that will directly affect the members of our Association while practicing the travel agency profession are listed below; 

• A provision has been added to paragraph 5 of Article 4 of the Tourist Guide Profession Law, stating that guidance services can be provided in Turkish.  

"Practice of the profession, membership to the chamber and professional registers

ARTICLE 4 -

(5) The profession shall be practiced in accordance with the law and professional ethical principles only in foreign languages specified in the work card, and in Turkish if the tourist guide is a Turkish tourist guide or if the tour participants know Turkish and request it."

This article, which was approved by the General Assembly, paved the way for the provision of guidance services in Turkish, and made it possible to perform the profession in Turkish if the tour participants know Turkish and request it.    

• The following is the addition made to paragraph 1 of Article 7 of the Law on Tourist Guiding Profession

"Trips organized by schools and institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education for students, accompanied by a teacher and without commercial purposes, are outside the scope of this Law."

By excluding from the scope of the Law the trips to be organized by schools and institutions for students, accompanied by a teacher and without commercial purposes, the obligation to have a guide on these trips has been eliminated.

• Paragraph 2 of Article 30 of the Law No. 1618 on Travel Agencies and the Association of Travel Agencies has been repealed and paragraph 3 has been amended as follows

"In the event that travel agencies, during the services provided to their customers, provide any benefit to themselves or the person they will direct in return for being sent to a certain business for shopping purposes without the knowledge and approval of their customers, the certificates of these travel agencies shall be canceled by the Ministry and they shall not be able to act as travel agencies for five years."

This amendment is a regulation on almost the same subject as the existing article before the amendment, and the necessary technical changes have been incorporated into the article.

• All articles of the Law will enter into force upon the publication in the Official Gazette of the Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Profession of Tourist Guiding Profession and the Law on Travel Agencies and the Law on the Association of Travel Agencies, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the Turkish Parliament.

We kindly submit the matter for your information.

Association of Turkish Travel Agencies
TÜRSAB