BELGIUM | OLIVIER DUGARDYN AND CARLA GHISLAIN 81 4. TRAVEL AGENCIES As already mentioned, in Belgium, tourism is the exclusive competence of each of the three Belgian regions: Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. The rules governing the profession of travel agent vary from region to region, although this has not always been the case. Indeed, before the regionalisation of this field, the profession of travel agent was governed by the law of 21 April 1965 on the status of travel agencies. This law required any organisation wishing to operate as a travel agent to obtain a license. In order to obtain such a license, a number of criteria had to be met, particularly: a) age (minimum 25 years old, with exceptions); b) nationality (from a EU Member State); c) professional competence (for example, having already worked for a travel agent for five years); and d) financial (proving the existence of a certain capital). In short, it was not that easy to obtain this license, which was not granted to just anyone. According to the government in power at the time, these harsh conditions were in place because: “In a sector where customers have to pay in full in advance for the service they will receive, and which can therefore be an excellent breeding ground for fraudsters, the licensing system is of paramount importance for consumer protection, and strict control of compliance with legal rules is necessary”5. Although the intention of the government when implementing these rules was to protect the consumer, it raises many questions, particularly with regard to the freedom to provide services and freedom of establishment in the context of tourism activities. Indeed, it could have been considered that by imposing such strict restrictions on the exercise of the profession of travel agent, Belgian legislation severely limited access to the profession and that there was discrimination based on nationality, age or experience. Despite this, the law remained in force until its repeal in the different regions of the country. In Flanders, the travel agent profession was liberalised in 2015 and Wallonia followed with a liberalisation in 2018. In other words, a person wishing to become a travel agent will no longer have to prove its professional competence and will no longer have to provide a bank guarantee to secure its professional commitments. Note, however, that as stated above, travel agents are obliged to 5 Question no. 0237 de D. Ramoudt, Question et réponse écrite, Chambre des représentants, 2 December 1993, Bulletin no. B88, p. 8466.
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