diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index e9be434..13bb835 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ install:
   # for executing python based pandoc filters
   - sudo apt-get install python3
   - sudo apt-get install python3-pip
+  - pip3 install --upgrade setuptools
   # install python filters
   - pip3 install pandoc-latex-environment
   # packages needed for the template