Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
What does this activity cover?
It covers selling travel, tour, transport, and accommodation services, including booking flights, hotels, and transfers, arranging packages, ticketing, and traveller support.
Who are the typical clients?
Leisure travellers planning trips, companies booking corporate travel, and visitors arranging services for their stay, across the UAE.
Is this the same as a tour operator?
No. Arranging and assembling the tours themselves is a tour operator activity, which is separate. A travel agency sells travel and tour services to clients.
Does this include corporate travel?
Yes. Booking and managing business travel for companies, including flights, hotels, and transfers for staff, falls within the scope of this activity.
Does this include providing the flights or hotels directly?
No. Directly providing the transport or accommodation is separate. A travel agency sells and books these services on behalf of travellers.
How to Start a Travel Agency Business with Meydan Free Zone
A family wants a week in Bali. A company needs to fly ten staff to a conference. A couple is planning a honeymoon and has no idea where to start. A travel agency is who they turn to, the people who find the flights, book the hotels, arrange the transfers, and hand over an itinerary that just works.
Travel agencies sit between travellers and the trip, and the business is moving online fast. The global online travel agency market was worth USD 269.8 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach USD 533.7 billion by 2034, according to Global Market Insights1.
In the UAE, the travel and tourism market was worth USD 68.1 billion in 2025 and is heading for USD 173.2 billion by 2034, according to IMARC Group2.
For a travel agency, that is a growing flow of customers: residents heading abroad, businesses sending staff, and visitors planning what to do once they land.
Travel agencies sell flights, hotels, and travel services to travellers and businesses, increasingly online, in a UAE travel market that keeps growing. The headline number is the size of the global online travel agency market.
Sources: Global Market Insights (2025); IMARC Group (2025).
Picture a travel agency on a busy afternoon. One agent builds a family holiday, comparing flights and locking in a hotel. Another arranges a company's travel for a trade show, juggling flights, rooms, and transfers for a dozen staff.
A third reissues a ticket after a flight change and reassures an anxious traveller. The agency earns a margin or commission on what it books, so the work is a steady flow of quoting, booking, and supporting trips.
In a market full of online options, the agencies that win are the ones whose service is quick, accurate, and worth more than a search engine.
Whether it is a family holiday, a corporate trip, or a visitor's stay, a travel agency turns a travel plan into booked flights, hotels, and itineraries that work.
Who is this for?
- Travel agencies: Businesses booking flights, hotels, and travel services for UAE travellers and companies.
- Online travel agencies: Operators selling travel and accommodation through digital platforms.
- Corporate travel specialists: Firms managing business travel for UAE companies.
Meydan Free Zone offers 100% foreign ownership, zero percent corporate tax on qualifying income, full profit repatriation, and a fully digital licensing process, providing a regulated and cost-efficient base from which to operate a travel agency business in one of the world's busiest travel and tourism hubs.
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7911.00 - Travel agency activities
Under this activity, your business is licensed to sell travel, tour, transport, and accommodation services to the public and commercial clients.
A travel agency sells travel, tour, transport, and accommodation services to the public and to businesses. The work spans booking flights, hotels, and transfers, arranging tours and packages, ticketing, and handling changes and support.
The clients are mixed: leisure travellers planning trips, companies booking corporate travel, and visitors arranging services for their stay. It is a service-and-margin business: the agency is paid to find the right options, book them correctly, and sort out the details so the traveller does not have to.
The activity is specifically for selling travel services to clients. Arranging and assembling the tours themselves as a tour operator (7912) falls under a separate activity, as does directly providing the transport or the accommodation.
The line is precise. If your business sells travel, tour, transport, and accommodation services to travellers and companies, you are in. If you assemble the tour packages as a tour operator, or provide the transport or accommodation directly, a different activity applies.
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Third-Party Approval: Approval from the Department of Economy and Tourism is required before the trade license is issued.
Anti-Money Laundering Compliance: This business activity is exempt from AML compliance requirements.
Citations
1 Global Market Insights. Online Travel Agency Market Report. Global Market Insights, 2025.
2 IMARC Group. UAE Travel and Tourism Market Report. IMARC Group, 2025.
