Tour operators provide a wide range of products and services for domestic, outgoing and ingoing tourists. Tour operators arrange things such as transport, accommodation and leisure activities that make up the holiday package. Tour operators specialise in package holidays, however, they do offer more flexible options such as flight only, fly drive and multi- centre holidays. .
Holiday packages are usually sold to the client through travel agencies, which then receive commission for acting as a link between the customer and supplier. There are hundreds of tour operators in the UK and the market is dominated by a handful of major companies. ABTA estimate that travel agencies offering products from the five largest UK tour operators sell 70% of inclusive tours. Although some tour operators such as Direct Holidays and Portland Direct sell holidays direct to the public via telephone, teletext, the Internet and through the mail. In 1998 it was estimated that 10% of outbound inclusive tours sold in the UK were booked directly with a tour operator rather than a travel agency. Major tour operators such as Thomson and Airtours have already introduced their own direct sell operations in order to protect their market shares.
The majority of operators are outbound operators, the largest operator in this market are Thomson Tour operators, First Choice Holidays and Air tours. Their largest market is air-inclusive tours to short haul destinations in the Mediterranean. The specialist long haul operators such as Kuoni Travel and Page and Moy, these specialise in city breaks. .
