Tourism Law in Europe

The proof of qualification for the travel agency business can be provided by a certificate of a successfully passed qualifying examination or certificates of a tourism academy, certain university studies, final apprenticeship examination in the occupation travel agency assistant and a subsequent professional activity of at least two years, attendance of a vocational school of at least three years' duration with a focus on tourism and a subsequent professional activity of at least two years, five years of relevant practice as a self-employed person or company manager or certain times of relevant practice together with a certain education. In all business premises in which the travel agency business is carried on and in which they are not themselves predominantly active, travel agency operators have to employ at least one competent employee sufficiently capable of a foreign language for day-to- day business operations and with full social security coverage 22 . 2.1.3. Other tourism related trades Other tourism related trades like car rental, ticket offices, small accommodation businesses, swimming facilities, ground handling of air passengers, operation of electronic devices for the delivery of explanations about places of interest, and others more are so-called „free trades“ which do not require any certificate of competence and can be carried out immediately after registration with the authorities. 2.2. Tourism Laws of the Federal Provinces According to Art. 15 of the Federal Constitution 23 , the regulation of specific areas of tourism and leisure is essentially a matter for the federal provinces. Each federal province, therefore, has its own tourism law. These tourism laws essentially regulate the establishment, organisation and tasks of tourism associations, the collection of tourism contributions and tourism promotion. Other federal province laws relevant to tourism include camping laws, which regulate the establishment of campsites as well as camping outside such sites. 22 Sec. 11 Package Travel Regulation (Pauschlareiseverordnung – PRV) 23 Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz (B-VG).