How do you legally set up an excursion business in the Canaries?

You know every path in Anaga like the back of your hand, up there where the panza de burro (that belly of clouds the trade winds bring in) brushes against the laurel forest. You know the hour when the light falls best on the Teide, where the sea settles enough for kayaking, and which ravine is best left alone when rain threatens. And one day the obvious thought lands: "why not make a living from this?". It's a good instinct, and you're far from the only one who has it, especially among those who arrived from elsewhere and fell in love with the islands.

The good news is that you can. The other piece of news, the one almost nobody tells you at the start, is that taking people into the mountains for money is a regulated activity, and starting out "to see what happens" without your paperwork in order is the fastest route to a fine and, worse, to an accident with no cover. This guide lays out the steps for you, without the drama and with the official sources at the end. It's the third instalment of our series on legal excursions in the Canaries.

First things first: it's not a hobby, it's a business

A paid guided outing (hiking, canyoning, kayaking, wildlife watching, climbing) falls under what the rules call active tourism, and in the Canaries that is governed by Decreto 226/2017, updated by the recent Decreto 138/2025, de 27 de octubre. This is no decorative formality: it defines which qualifications you need, which insurance is mandatory and how you must register before you operate.

What separates it from a favour between friends is the money and the open offer. The moment you charge and advertise yourself as a service, you are a business in the eyes of the law. And being a business, here, comes with real advantages we'll get to at the end. Let's take it in order.

Step 1: register as self-employed

The first brick is becoming self-employed (autónomo). It's done at two counters:

• The tax office (censal registration, form 036/037), where you choose your IAE heading. There's an important nuance here: active tourism has no heading of its own, so it gets slotted into the one that best describes your activity. The most common are 882 (tourist guides), 967.2 (schools and sports-improvement services) or 755 (travel agencies) if you also assemble and sell packages. It's worth fine-tuning this choice with an accountant, because your tax obligations hang on it.

• Social Security (registration in the RETA), the self-employed scheme.

A push to get you started: anyone registering as self-employed for the first time can take up the flat rate for the self-employed, which in 2026 is a reduced contribution of 80 euros a month for the first twelve months (a little more once you add the MEI), extendable for another year if your income stays below the minimum wage. You apply for it at the very moment of registration.

Step 2: the qualification the activity requires

Here's the point most people underestimate. Knowing the island well is not a qualification. The rules require that technical staff, monitors, instructors and guides hold the legally required qualification or professional certification for the specific activity you offer. It's not a single title: it's the one that matches each discipline.

For mountain activities, the official reference titles are the sports qualifications (enseñanzas deportivas) regulated by the State (Real Decreto 702/2019), among them the Técnico Deportivo en Media Montaña, the Técnico Deportivo en Barrancos and the Técnico Deportivo en Escalada. Each one defines what you can guide and under what conditions: hiking and summer mid-mountain terrain, canyon descents, via ferratas, climbing, and so on.

And watch out for a distinction we already covered in the first instalment: if your activity is cultural or heritage guiding (visits to historic town centres, monuments), that's a different regulated profession, the official tourist guide, which in the Canaries requires an accreditation (habilitación) from the Dirección General after passing certain exams (Decreto 13/2010). They are separate worlds, with separate titles.

A useful note from Decreto 138/2025: those already operating have a two-year adaptation period from its entry into force to bring themselves in line with the newly required qualifications. If you're starting from scratch, it's better to set up the right training from the outset.

Step 3: the mandatory insurance (with figures)

This is neither optional nor negotiable. The Canary rules oblige active-tourism businesses to take out:

• A civil liability policy with minimum cover of 600.000 euros per claim and 150.000 euros per victim.

• An accident or assistance policy covering the participants, including any search, rescue and recovery fees arising from an accident.

That insurance is, quite literally, what separates a serious business from an "off-the-books" route. It's also your own safety net as a professional: a sprained ankle on difficult ground stops being your personal ruin and becomes a covered claim.

And this is no theoretical scenario. If the Government of the Canaries has to scramble a GES helicopter (Grupo de Emergencias y Salvamento) for an accident involving a client under your care, and negligence or lack of cover is proven, the bill for search and rescue fees can run into thousands of euros and land with your name on it. If your activity touches the water (kayaking at the cliffs of Los Gigantes, for instance), the policy must also account for the tides and the undertow currents typical of the Canary coast.

Step 4: the responsible declaration and the registry

With your registration, your qualification and your insurance in hand, you take the step that turns you into a legal operator: you file a responsible declaration of start of activity (declaración responsable de inicio de actividad) at the electronic office of the Government of the Canaries. With it you declare that you meet the requirements (staff qualifications, insurance, first-aid training, staff Spanish level B1, and a clear certificate from the Sex Offenders Registry if you work with minors) and you become entered in the General Tourism Registry of the Canaries, which assigns you an identifying code.

That code is not dead paperwork: it's what an informed traveller will ask you for before booking, and what opens the door to the next step.

Did you know? The Canary active-tourism registry is open data: anyone can download the list of registered operators and check whether you're on it. Being on that list is, today, one of the best calling cards you can hold in front of a client.

Watch out for the space regulations in 2026

Registering the business is not enough. If you're going to guide in protected spaces, you'll also have to arrange the specific permits of each Cabildo or park. A few examples already in force:

• Anaga: the El Pijaral path (Bosque Encantado), in the Integral Nature Reserve, requires prior, named authorisation from the Cabildo of Tenerife (free, with a limited daily quota and small groups; it does not allow mass commercial tours).

• Teide: to set foot on the summit via Trail nº 10 Telesforo Bravo you need a reservation/permit; and from June 2026 smoking is banned across the whole National Park. In addition, the Altavista Refuge reopens on 20 July 2026 after years of works, which revives the logistics of overnight stays to watch the sunrise from the summit.

• Masca: if you take groups down to the ravine, access is regulated and requires use of the guagua (mandatory shared transport) and the combined ticket; you can't "go in on your own".

Knowing about and arranging these permits is part of your job, and also part of your sales pitch: the informed client values the guide who handles it all.

Why the legal path pays off (genuinely)

Compliance takes some effort up front, yes. But looked at a year down the line, legality isn't a toll: it's your business model.

• You get onto the big platforms. To list on Civitatis, GetYourGuide or Viator you have to be a registered, insured provider. Without your paperwork you don't pass the verification; with it, you reach a global shop window that no post in a Facebook group can give you.

• You can work with the trade. Hotels, inbound agencies and other operators only refer clients to compliant providers, because their own liability depends on it. Legality makes you a reliable partner, not underground competition.

• You invoice and grow without fear. You issue invoices, deduct expenses, reinvest. You can hire another qualified monitor when demand rises. An "off-the-books" business never scales: it runs with the handbrake on and the threat of a fine hanging over it.

• You sell peace of mind. In a market where travellers increasingly ask for the registration number and the insurance, being able to show them is a competitive advantage, not a burden.

Guide-to-guide tip: rounding off a route with a meal at a traditional guachinche is the perfect finishing touch for your clients. But if you have coeliac clients, be careful with Canary cooking: gofio (toasted cereal flour, often from wheat, though also from maize) turns up in dishes like escaldón and in some sauces, and traditional kitchens tend to use shared fryers. In Tenerife, the Asador El Rincón de Chasna (Vilaflor) is a reference point with a kitchen adapted for coeliacs.

From passion to profession

That you know the terrain, we already take as read, and that's the hard part to teach. The rest (the registration, the qualification, the insurance, the registry) is a finite list of steps that thousands of professionals have walked before you. It's worth doing them in order and with a good accountant at your side: you spare yourself nasty surprises and you build something that lasts. A logistical note if you're going to move between islands for your routes: since 2026 the Naviera Armas crossings have been operating progressively under the new brand Baleària Canarias, still in a transition phase.

If you want to understand how your future client sees it (what signals they look for, what gives them confidence), read the first instalment, https://islas24.info/en/blog/how-to-spot-legal-excursions-canary-islands. And if your idea involves picking up and driving tourists around by car, careful, because that's transport and it has its own rules: we break it down in https://islas24.info/en/blog/private-car-excursion-legal-canary-islands.

This is the third of four instalments. In the last one we'll close the circle: why intrusion into the trade harms the businesses that do comply, and where to find the official registry island by island.

Sources

• Decreto 138/2025, de 27 de octubre, que modifica el Reglamento de turismo activo (Gobierno de Canarias / Juriscan): https://www3.gobiernodecanarias.org/juriscan/ficha.jsp?id=79561

• Decreto 226/2017, de 13 de noviembre, Reglamento de las actividades de turismo activo de Canarias: https://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/608450-d-226-2017-de-13-nov-ca-canarias-reglamento-por-el-que-se-establece-el-regimen.html

• Gobierno de Canarias — Turismo Activo (normativa y requisitos): https://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/turismo/dir_gral_ordenacion_promocion/TurismoActivo/

• Sede electrónica — Declaración responsable de inicio de la actividad de Turismo Activo (requisitos y seguros): https://sede.gobiernodecanarias.org/sede/tramites/9309

• Real Decreto 702/2019 — Títulos de Técnico Deportivo en Barrancos, Escalada y Media Montaña (BOE): https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2020-344

• Decreto 13/2010 — profesión de guía de turismo en Canarias: https://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/CCAA/ic-d13-2010.html

• Gobierno de Canarias — Guías de Turismo (habilitación): https://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/turismo/dir_gral_ordenacion_promocion/guias_de_turismo/index.html

• Seguridad Social — Trabajo Autónomo (alta RETA y guía práctica): https://portal.seg-social.gob.es/wps/portal/importass/importass/Colectivos/Trabajo+Autonomo/guia

• Tarifa plana de autónomos 2026 (Infoautónomos): https://www.infoautonomos.com/seguridad-social/tarifa-plana-autonomos/

• GetYourGuide — información empresarial necesaria para ser proveedor: https://supply.getyourguide.support/hc/es-es/articles/13980963924381