Package Tours & Travel Agencies

Legally, only Group A travel agencies may operate tours abroad from Türkiye. The TÜRSAB website must list every agency's name, registered trade name, website and phone details. You can look agencies up here: TÜRSAB agency search (in Turkish). Appearing on the list is not an absolute guarantee of trustworthiness, but we strongly advise against booking with agencies or websites that are not on it.

TÜRSAB also publishes a list of agencies whose licences have been revoked: Agencies with revoked licences (in Turkish)

Under Article 30 of Law No. 1618, if a travel agency takes customers to a particular shopping venue without their knowledge and consent, and either the agency or the venue profits from it, the agency's licence is revoked and it is banned from operating as a travel agency for 5 years. You can file a complaint with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Yes. A consumer who gives notice in writing or via a durable data medium at least thirty days before the package tour starts has the right to terminate the contract and receive a full refund of the tour price, with no deduction other than mandatory legal charges such as taxes. If the termination notice is given less than thirty days before the start, a deduction of a fixed amount or percentage may be applied — but only if it is specified in the package tour contract.

Unless you happen to know someone in the Saudi royal family or at Türkiye's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) — no. Under Article 6 ("Hajj quota") of the Decision on the Conduct of Hajj and Umrah Travel by the Directorate of Religious Affairs, 60% of Türkiye's Hajj quota is used by the Directorate and 40% is allocated collectively to agencies; each agency registers the pilgrims it can take within its allocated quota. By decisions of the Inter-Ministerial Hajj and Umrah Board taken before each Hajj season, pilgrims are selected by a lottery drawn from citizens who renewed their Hajj registration or pre-registered, taking into account accommodation preferences and years of pre-registration, using the coefficients and ratios set for that year.