Tour Operators

A Tour Operator is a person or company that comes up with vacation ideas, researches them, develops the vacation itinerary and content, contracts the services needed for the vacation, such as transportation and its costs, lodging based on budget and customer demand, guides, tour leaders, or resort reps, and then puts together the final package. Tour Operators have the option of selling the package directly to the consumer or via a travel agent. A tour operator sells a product that he or she has manufactured. They don't sell other people's bundles; only their own is for sale. In the perspective of the law, a tour operator is a "principal," which means they are responsible for the package they create and insure it with (usually) an ATOL license.