Tour Operators and Travel Agents

Travel Directory | Tour Operators and Travel Agents. See also Tours for operators offering Tours by Destination.

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Tour Operators and Travel Agents - Consumer Protection

Once you've paid your tour operator or travel agent, you may have no financial protection if they go bust before you travel. You may also find your dream holiday turning into a nightmare, with no recourse. So what can you do to protect your investment?

To protect yourself as much as possible, here are three simple tips:

Credit card: buy a flight/trip/package by credit card. This doesn't always help but depending on what you buy, from which tour operator and with which card, it may. If, for example, you buy an airline ticket directly with a credit card and the company does a belly flop, the card provider will repay the flight cost, if it was over £100.

Travel insurance: get full travel insurance from a reputable company. Cheapest is not necessarily best, and read the fine print. Some policies will cover you fully if your travel service provider goes under. You pays your money, you takes your choice...

Traveller protection associations and bonds: check that your tour operator or travel agent is a member of one of these associations, or that they have paid for a bond for your protection. Check with the association if you have any concerns, and tell the association if you have any complaints.

UK:

ATOL Air Travel Organiser's Licensing

ABTA Association of British Travel Agents

AITO Association of Independent Tour Operators

PSA Passenger Shipping Association Retail Agent Scheme

TTA Travel Trust Association

USA:

NTA National Tour Association

USTOA United States Tour Operators Association

ASTA American Society Of Travel Agents

Canada - ACTA Association of Canadian Travel Agents

New Zealand - TAANZ Travel Agents Association of New Zealand

And finally, if the worst comes to the worst and you do lose money or have a holiday disaster - and find you have no protection - write to your newspaper's travel section and have a good whinge. The threat of bad publicity will often spur a tour operator to offer some compensation.