Rotor

A friend has a large property in Malaga province and wants to set up doing walking holidays from it offering airport collection, B&B and guided mountain walks ,he lives in the UK and his business would be based there, he has asked me about the legalities of operating in Spain for several weeks of the year as a tour company , I`m not sure in which direction to point him ? which dept / officina?

Casa Santo Estevo

Point him to this.

agoreira

I'm not a local, but seems like they don't know anyway, but I'll give you what scant knowledge I have of the subject. This guy operates north of Málaga, based in Frigiliana, and I think he does OK, but I can't imagine it's huge money
http://www.hikingwalkingspain.com
No idea if your friend has any qualifications, but this guy is ex mountain guide etc, years of experience, is also a qualified travel consultant, so able to organise holidays easily. Looking at his licences, (http://www.hikingwalkingspain.com/p/who-we-are.html) it would seem the Consejería de Turismo, Comercio y Deportes should be his first port of call.
He is also registered with these, http://www.fedamon.com/
It seems it is a fairly competitive business, these also operate from the same area and are equally well qualified. http://www.purehighwalkingholidaysspain.com/location/
TBH, I can't see it working for a few weeks a year and being based in UK. The above operate all year and have spent some time building the business, but I bet they aren't earning a fortune.

spainrico

Already lots of this type of business. I have been with some of them and they are all struggling mainly because cost of flights means they have less clients.

This site lists whats available now

Dick Dasterdly

A surprising amount of serious competition there.
Seems like the market is already pretty well catered for.

Rotor

Thankyou all for your info , it does seem fairly lucrative if your can get the bookings , most seem to charge £500 pp pw h/b , so with his 5 double bedroom
thats a potential gross of £5k pw , he already owns the house house and food and transport would not add up to a huge amount, of course other overheads will eat into this but it still seems better than most small business`s in Spain today.

agoreira

Walkers are also a bit like golfers, they prefer the cooler times, many shun July and August. You'll always get some nutters walking then, but the busy times tend to be spring and autumn. I think it's optimistic to expect to have 100% occupancy, especially as he'll be starting from scratch. Many returning walkers stick with what they know, if they have a good experience, they'll stick with that company. Don't forget if he intends to be legal, the house would need to be inspected (fire escapes, extinguishers etc), and passed by the Junta, (licences, registrations) plus all the necessary insurances, public liability cover etc. I can't see the Junta making it easy, it's not the Spanish way! It might be worth a go, I just don't see it as a source of easy money.