The article discusses the administrative formal and legal conditions (administrative procedures) required when starting a business in order to offer services in the tourism industry. The formal and legal administrative conditions are not uniform in this respect, which can be attributed to both the lack of a common legal basis specifying the conditions for providing particular types of services in tourism, as well as to differences in the procedure of undertaking business activity. The formal and legal conditions have been specifi ed by regulations in the Act of 2 July 2004 about the freedom of business activity and in the Act of 29 August 1997 about services in the tourism industry. Assuming the criterion of the legal basis as the foundation of the division, the article discusses four different legal situations, which can occur under the current legal condition that applies to undertaking business activity in providing services for tourism. In relation to the required administrative procedure three types of business activity have been specifi ed: activity which does not require an administrative decision, activity which can be commenced after issuing an administrative decision and activity which can be undertaken on conditions other than those mentioned above.