TÜRSAB License Check: How to Verify a Turkish Travel Agency

A TÜRSAB license check needs three things: the agency's registry number, its company name, and the Registered Travel Agencies search on tursab.org.tr, where a licensed agency comes up with its registered name and address. Under Law No. 1618 of 1972, nobody may sell tours in Türkiye without a certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and every certified agency must belong to TÜRSAB, so a number that does not come up is reason enough to stop and ask.

TÜRSAB (often typed TURSAB) is the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, and the number it lists is the same one printed on the agency's Ministry certificate. The check works the same way whether you are choosing an Ephesus travel agency for a cruise day in Kuşadası or an operator for Istanbul or Cappadocia. Below, we run it step by step on our own number, 15746, so you can see what a clean result looks like, and then cover the second check that matters just as much at the sites themselves: whether the person guiding you is licensed too.

How do I check if a Turkish travel agency is licensed?

Ask for the agency's TÜRSAB registration number and search it at tursab.org.tr under Registered Travel Agencies. A licensed agency comes up with its registered name, address and any website TÜRSAB has verified. If the number is missing or belongs to another company, hold off booking until the agency explains.

That is the whole principle. The rest of this page is detail: which screen to use, what the result should contain, and how to read the parts that exist only in Turkish.

The TÜRSAB license check, step by step

1. Ask for the number and the names. A licensed agency will give you its registry number (you may see it called the belge no, the registration number or simply the TÜRSAB number) and its company name without any fuss. Many print both in the website footer; ours are at the bottom of every page.
2. Search the number on tursab.org.tr. In the English menu, open Agency Registration, then Registered Travel Agencies. Choose “Search by name or registration id”, type the number into Registration No and press Search. Type tursab.org.tr into your browser yourself rather than following a link someone sent you.
3. Match what comes back. The result shows the registered agency name, its address, contact details and the websites TÜRSAB has verified for it. The address and email should belong to the business you are actually dealing with.
4. Cross-check with the Ministry. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism keeps its own agency registry, in Turkish. Enter the number under Belge Numarası and leave the certificate status (Belge Durumu) on GEÇERLİ, which means valid: an agency that comes up holds a valid certificate. The result also gives the agency title, the company's trade name (Ticari Unvanı) and the group (Grubu). For a private tour you want group A.
5. Check the website, if that is where you found the agency. The same TÜRSAB page has a second option, “Search by website (website validation)”. A site on the agency's verified list has been confirmed by TÜRSAB as belonging to it. TÜRSAB also warns that a verification badge is only a picture: click it, and make sure you land on tursab.org.tr, with no extra accents or marks on the letters of the address.

A worked example: registration number 15746

Here is the same check run on our own license in September 2026, so you know what a clean result looks like.

• TÜRSAB search, number 15746: the agency name comes back as OZAN GEZGİNOL TURİZM, at İkiçeşmelik Mahallesi, Kirazlı Yolu Caddesi, Kuşadası / Aydın, the same address printed at the foot of this page.
• Ministry registry, number 15746: trade name GEZGİNOL TURİZM VE TİC. LTD. ŞTİ., group A, status GEÇERLİ (valid).
• Websites verified by TÜRSAB: sevenchurchestour.com, our Seven Churches tour site. 141journeys.com and our other brand websites are not on that list yet, so a website check on this site will tell you it has not been verified.

Two things in that result puzzle people, and both are ordinary. First, there are three names: the agency title on the certificate (OZAN GEZGİNOL TURİZM), the company's trade name (Gezginol Turizm ve Ticaret Ltd. Şti.) and the names travelers actually see, such as Gezginol Tours and the 141 Journeys family of websites. One licensed company can run several brands and websites, which is exactly why the check runs on the number and the address, never on a logo. Second, a website missing from the verified list has simply not been confirmed by TÜRSAB. That is not proof of a problem, but it is the right moment to ask the agency to confirm your booking from the email address shown in the registry. If you would like to know who stands behind the number, here is who we are.

What a TÜRSAB license covers, and what it does not

What it covers. The certificate means the Ministry has registered the company, holds its address and supervises it. Under Law No. 1618:

• every agency lodges a financial guarantee with the Ministry, which the Ministry can cash to pay customers if the agency fails to meet its obligations;
• package tours sold in Türkiye must be insured against the agency failing to deliver, bankruptcy included, and your contract has to name the insurer;
• every tour must carry a licensed guide, at least one for every 45 travelers, and nobody else may do the guiding;
• agencies may not advertise falsely; TÜRSAB can discipline its members, and the Ministry can fine an agency or cancel its certificate.

The group letter matters too. A-group agencies may offer every travel-agency service; B-group agencies sell international transport tickets and the tours of A-group agencies; C-group agencies run domestic tours for Turkish citizens only. For a private tour as a visitor from abroad, the letter to look for is A. In September 2026 the Ministry registry lists more than 17,000 valid entries, head offices and branches together, and all but about a hundred of them are group A.

What it does not cover.

• It is not a quality rating. With more than 17,000 entries, the license is the legal floor, not a recommendation. Recent reviews, a clear written price and a direct answer to a specific question are still how you choose; the rest of that checklist is in how to choose a tour operator in Türkiye.
• It belongs to the company, not to the guide. The person who walks you through Ephesus needs a license of their own, which is the next check.
• It does not vouch for every website that uses an agency's name. Only the sites on the agency's verified list have been confirmed by TÜRSAB.

Licensed tour guide or driver? Check the person as well

The agency license is half the picture. In Türkiye, tourist guiding is a licensed profession under the Tourist Guiding Profession Law (No. 6326, 2012). A licensed tour guide holds a license issued by the Ministry and, to work, a work card from a regional guides' chamber that is valid for one year and names the languages the guide may work in. The law expects the card to be carried visibly while guiding, and TUREB, the union of the guides' chambers, publishes licensed guides' names in a database at tureb.org.tr that you can search by name, chamber or language.

That is why a private driver and a private guide are not the same booking. A driver can take you to the gate of Ephesus or through the valleys of Cappadocia; inside the site, the explaining is legally a guide's job, and an agency's tour must carry one. If you are booking a Cappadocia private tour with an official licensed guide, or an Istanbul day with a licensed tourist guide who speaks your language, ask for the guide's name in advance and look it up.

One more rule surprises people: a licensed guide working independently may sell guiding only, not transport, hotels or a tour package, which need an agency. If you only want the guide and will arrange your own car, that is precisely what our sister site Ephesus by Locals is for.

When the details do not match

• The number returns nothing. Check the digits, then ask the agency to confirm them. TÜRSAB also publishes a list of agencies whose certificates have been canceled.
• The number belongs to a different company. Online marketplaces and other agencies often resell tours operated by a licensed agency, and that is normal. What matters is that your confirmation names the operating agency and its number, so you can check that one.
• The website is not on the verified list. As our own example shows, that alone is not proof of a problem. Write to the email address in the registry and ask the agency to confirm the booking from there.
• Something still feels wrong after the booking. TÜRSAB runs a consumer complaints service for member agencies; it asks for the agency's name, its certificate number if you know it, and your booking documents. Keep the number with your confirmation from the start.

Once the number checks out: booking a private tour with us

Every tour on all of our websites runs under that one certificate, 15746. Booking takes three steps: pick the 141 Journeys website that covers your region (all ten are on our websites page), send your dates and group size through its form, and a licensed guide replies with a fixed price for the day. Skip-the-line entry is part of every tour, because we buy your entrance tickets in advance; the tickets themselves are billed separately, at exactly the Ministry's price. How it all works is on our page about private tours in Turkey with a licensed guide, and you are welcome to run this whole check on us before you write.