A tour operator is a travel business that bundles transport, accommodation, and activities into a packaged trip and sells it — directly to the public, via travel agents, or both.
Tour operators can run group departures (fixed dates, fixed itinerary, multiple paying parties) or FIT (free independent traveller — bespoke itineraries for individuals or small groups). Most do both.
The CRM challenge for tour operators is departure-aware capacity tracking and the dual nature of their pipeline: high-volume, lower-margin group bookings sit alongside low-volume, high-margin FIT enquiries.