Procedures for establishing a foreign invested tourism company

Can foreign investors register to do business in travel services? Procedures for establishing a company and applying for a travel business license for foreigners.

Can foreign investors establish travel companies?

A travel agency (or tourism company) is a business specializing in tourism-related services including one or more services such as: tourist transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, sightseeing, guidance, entertainment, etc.

Travel service business is a conditional business. Travel service business units must be enterprises with legal status. So can foreign investors establish companies and do travel service business in Vietnam?

According to Article 38 of the 2017 Law on Tourism, foreign investors are allowed to contribute capital with partners in Vietnam to establish a travel service business company in accordance with the provisions of Vietnamese law and international treaties to which Vietnam is a member.

➨ Thus, foreigners cannot establish a travel service business company on their own but must contribute capital with Vietnamese people or organizations and enterprises in Vietnam to establish a travel service business company.

Scope of travel service business of foreign investors

According to Appendix I issued in Decree 31/2021/ND-CP, travel service business belongs to the group of industries with conditional market access for foreign investors in Vietnam. 

Accordingly, foreign investors are only allowed to do international travel business and not domestic travel business. Specifically:

• Only domestic tours are allowed for foreign visitors to Vietnam;
• Do not take Vietnamese tourists abroad.

Conditions for international travel service business of foreign investors

To be eligible to provide international travel services to serve international tourists coming to Vietnam, foreign investors must meet the following conditions:

• Contribute capital with Vietnamese partners to establish a company and register for international travel service business;
• Deposit for travel service business at the bank with a deposit of 250,000,000 VND (Applicable from January 1, 2024);
• Apply for international travel license;
• The person in charge of international travel services in the enterprise must have a college degree or higher in travel. In case the person has a college degree or higher in another major, the person in charge must have a certificate of international travel operations.

Note:

• Before applying for an international travel license, foreign-invested enterprises must open a bank account and make a deposit at the bank to receive a deposit certificate;
• The bank making the deposit can be a commercial bank or a branch of a foreign bank in Vietnam where the enterprise has its head office.

Refer to the article:

>> Deposit level for international and domestic travel service business – New;

>> Procedures for establishing domestic and international travel companies.

Procedures for establishing a foreign invested tourism company

The process of establishing a foreign-invested company (FDI enterprise) to conduct international travel services in the form of capital contribution with Vietnamese individuals and organizations is carried out in the following steps:

➨ Step 1: Find a Vietnamese partner to contribute capital to establish a foreign-invested company

• Vietnamese partners can be Vietnamese individuals, organizations or businesses with legal status;
• In case the partner is a Vietnamese individual, he/she must be 18 years of age or older, have full civil act capacity, and not be prohibited from managing and establishing an enterprise according to the provisions of Vietnamese law.

➨ Step 2: Carry out procedures to establish a travel company (register a travel business)

• To establish a travel service business company, investors must carry out two procedures:
  • Apply for a business registration certificate;
  • Apply for investment certificate.
• The documents and procedures for establishing a foreign-invested company fdiinvietnam.com have been detailed in the article “Procedures for establishing a foreign-invested company”. You can refer to and download the free sample documents in this article.

➨ Step 3: Complete the following procedures to establish the company: 

• Engrave company seals, engrave title seals for company directors and general directors;
• Make signs and hang them at headquarters;
• Buy digital signature, electronic invoice;
• Register to use electronic invoices with codes with tax authorities;
• Initial tax declaration and submission of business license fee declaration;
• Open a bank account to make capital contributions.

>> See more: 7 things to do after establishing an international travel service company.

Documents and procedures for applying for an international travel business license

International travel business license (also known as sub-license, certificate of eligibility to operate international travel business) is one of the legal conditions for foreign-invested companies to operate legally.

After preparing a complete set of documents to apply for an international travel license as fdiinvietnam.com instructed above, businesses can submit their applications in the following 2 ways:

• Method 1: Submit application directly to the Department of Tourism or send by post;
• Method 2: Submit application online on the public service website of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Time limit for processing application:

• Within 10 working days from the date of receiving complete and valid documents, the Department of Tourism will review the documents and issue an international travel license to the enterprise;
• In case the application is invalid, the Department of Tourism will issue a written notice to the business.

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Rights and obligations of FDI enterprises providing travel services

Foreign-invested companies providing international travel services to serve international tourists coming to Vietnam have the following rights and obligations:

1. Develop, advertise, sell and implement tourism services and tours for tourists within the scope of business specified in the international travel license;
2. Notify the competent state agency when changing the person in charge of travel service business within 15 days from the date of change;
3. Provide tourists with information about services, programs, and tourist destinations;
4. Implement reporting, statistics, accounting and record keeping regimes as prescribed;
5. Purchase insurance for tourists during the tour, except in cases where tourists already have insurance for the entire tour;
6. There are tour guides to guide tourists according to the travel contract. The enterprise is responsible for the tour guide’s activities during the tour according to the contract;
7. Comply with, disseminate and guide tourists to comply with legal regulations and regulations of tourist destinations; behave in a civilized manner, respect the cultural identities and customs of Vietnam and tourist destinations. Enterprises are responsible for coordinating with competent state agencies to promptly handle violations of the law by tourists during the tour;
8. Apply measures to ensure safety for tourists; promptly notify competent state agencies of accidents and risks occurring to tourists and take remedial measures.
9. Carry out tourist management according to the tour agreed with the tourists;
10. Ensure maintenance of international travel service business conditions; publicize the company name and international travel service business license number on the signboard at the company headquarters, branches and transaction offices, in travel service contracts, on the company’s advertising publications and in electronic transactions;
11. Support tourists with entry, exit, transit and customs procedures.

Above, fdiinvietnam.com has shared with you useful information about whether foreigners can establish a travel agency in Vietnam or not and related documents and procedures. If you need more information or advice on the service of establishing an international travel agency, you can contact fdiinvietnam.com at 0978 578 866 (North) –  033 9962 333 (Central)  –   0946 724 666 (South)  for detailed advice.

Call us at  0978 578 866 (North) –  033 9962 333 (Central)  –   0946 724 666 (South)  for support.