The aim of this paper is to investigate how different factors affect the application of circular economy activities, which are based on circular principles and seek to replace the environmentally unacceptable concept of linear business. For that purpose, we use data about small and medium-sized enterprises in the EU, as the most numerous enterprises, from the Flash eurobarometer 441 survey. We included the tourism sector into a deeper analysis in order to examine whether companies from the tourism sector apply the activities of the circular economy more often and whether they have more difficulties in applying the mentioned activities. It was found that larger and older companies, companies that sell products or services directly to consumers, companies that are self-financing and belong to the tourism sector have a significant and positive connection with the use of circular economy activities. It was also found that companies in the tourism sector have more difficulties in accessing finance when implementing circular economy activities than companies belonging to some other sector. The paper can serve as a basis for further research on the still insufficiently researched circular economy in tourism.