Is it possible to have a home-based travel business?

Philippines
May 8, 2012 5:37am CST
My sister and I are thinking of starting our own travel agency, but would like to have it home-based, for now. She is a tour guide at a local travel agency, so she already has the experience that we can use. I, on the other hand, am very fond of traveling with my husband and I know many places in the country and could easily whip up travel packages. However, when I researched online about travel business, it seems that the government is strict about unregistered travel agencies, and are actively looking out for those operating without a business license. Well, obviously it's illegal to operate any business without preparing the necessary documents. But, I'd just like to test the waters before I go full blown on this. Also, I don't have much capital to invest on an office and other prerequisites of putting up a travel agency. Later on, when everything is running smoothly, I would of course, pursue it and file all necessary papers to make the business official. Should I pursue our meager plans and start our little home-based travel and tours agency? What should I look out for to avoid issues with the authorities?
4 responses
@TrvlArrngr (4045)
• United States
9 May 12
Not sure where you live but in the United States there are very few airlines that pay commission anymore. I run a business travel call center and have worked in the travel industry over 20 years. Gone are the years of the fun and fabulous perks when I used to have so many free tickets I could not use them all. It is hard to making money in travel these days. Think about it carefully.
• Philippines
9 May 12
I'm from the Philippines. I did hear about the diminishing perks of the travel business. I think its because of the growing competition. There are more travel agencies now, that airline companies don't have to reduce prices for them or offer freebies just to get customers from them. Well, that's why I wanted to test if first, before I go full fledge with the business idea, because I'm not really sure how good it could get.
@msdivkar (23360)
• India
8 May 12
Hi jureat, It is a good idea to start a home based travel business. It is the most developing business in the world today. If you decide to start the business of your own then it requires a big capital and management infrastructure to make it real big. My suggestion is to start a general on line business of providing recharges for cell phones and D.T.H., tickets for bus, railway and airline along with tours and travel services. There are companies providing all these services on line. You can take a franchisee of one such company by paying a small fee. Good thing about this business is it is home based and does not require large infrastructure just a computer system with good fast and reliable broad band connection. I am running one such business in India. I am not aware of companies operating in Philippines but in India there are lot of companies providing such services.
• Philippines
9 May 12
I'm a little hesitant about having online presence, because that would make you more traceable by prying eyes. I mean, if let's say this business gets really successful, and competitors would find out I haven't done the necessary business registrations, they could easily spot me and report me to the authorities.
@maximax8 (31055)
• United Kingdom
8 May 12
Yes, it is possible to begin a home travel agency. In the UK where UI live the travel agents have to have a membership to an organization that covers people's money. The government is very clear on this and it would be essential. You will have to let the tax department know because you will need to pay tax. It is a good idea to test the waters first before spending lots of money setting up your company. Good luck.
• Philippines
9 May 12
So, do the gov't go after those who operate with no business license? What are the consequences, if you know.
@thanks1961 (7035)
• India
8 May 12
It is really a nice idea and there are a lot of hope in this area of business as most of the governments are promoting tourism with higher priorities. As you said, start with locally and it may be slow in the initial stage and you can establish your business with dedicated services and become more profitable in the long run. Best of luck.