Understanding travel distribution

7 minute read • Last updated: 25 February 2025

Travel distribution is all the different ways you can get your product to the customer. Grow your understanding of travel distribution and decide if working with a partner to sell your product is right for you.

Selling via a distribution partner is not just about selling more. The benefits of working together can include reducing your business risk by creating a bigger shop window for your business and reaching new audiences. You could also see more direct bookings and get a higher return or value per customer.

Working with a distribution partner is different than selling directly. Consider the timescales of developing a relationship, how you’ll be paid for these sales, and what systems and marketing materials you'll need to prepare.

Understanding your audience

Where does a customer get the idea to visit a business come from?
Customers:
- look up holiday ideas in search engines
- get ideas from friends on social media
- look at reviews across different websites
Where does a customer make a booking?
Customers could:
- book a packaged tour through a tour operator
- have a bespoke itinerary created by a travel advisor
- compare and book accommodation and experiences through an online travel agent (OTA)
- seek to book accommodation or experiences through the business website while already on holiday
Find out more about how customers plan and book a trip to Scotland.
Selling to customers
There are two main ways to sell your products to customers.
1. Selling directly to customers, using your own marketing channels of website, social media and any website listings such as Google.
2. Selling through a travel distribution partner, who will require a trade rate or a commission and sell either directly to the customer or to another partner first.
Examples of travel distribution partners
- online travel agents (OTA)
- tour operators
- wholesalers
- destination management companies (DMC)
- travel agents
- travel advisors

Distribution partners who purchase from your business

There are a number of travel distribution partners that you can directly sell your product to. They are an OTA, a DMC or wholesaler, a tour operator and a travel advisor.

Online travel agents

Visitors with bikes enjoying Comrie Croft — Comrie Croft

Online travel agents (OTAs) run websites which allow customers to search and book travel products or packages, from flights and accommodation to tours, attractions and activities.

Customers use them for research as well as booking as they are convenient and allow them to compare price and product easily. Customers can look at your business listing, read the reviews and look at images and videos of the experience.

You can apply for a listing on an OTA, who will take a commission for any bookings.

Examples of OTAs are Expedia, Booking.com, GetYourGuide, Viator, Klook and Ctrip.

Destination management companies

A destination management company (DMC) contracts product from Scottish tourism businesses and sells it on to other travel distribution partners – they don’t sell directly to customers.

There are several based in Scotland and in London and they work in multiple markets across the world. They can cater for anything from a single coach booking right up to a programme of itineraries with regular departures across the year combining accommodation, transport, tours, experience and food & drink.

A DMC can sell a set package onto a partner, such as a tour operator, or provide a bespoke itinerary to a partner, such as a travel advisor.

They operate in large volumes – both in terms of buying products from businesses and the sales they make to other partners.

Examples of DMCs are Abbey Tours, Jac Travel, Cashel, Angela Shanley, Tour Partner Group and AC Tours.

Tour operators

A tour operator is a company that puts together travel products for selling to customers as itineraries. They may buy from you directly, or through a DMC.

Tour operators often have a large marketing budget to push their products online and through brochures. This creates a database of direct customers, travel agents and advisors. Many of their customers will stay loyal and come back each year for a different product for a different country, so it’s very important to a tour operator to meet customer expectations with your product. This means that the reliability and reputation of Scottish businesses will be very important to them, as the experience a customer has with you will affect the likelihood of the customer using that tour operator again.

There are several types of tour operators that cater for different interests.

Generalists

Generalist tour operators tend to be source market specialists with a deep understanding of their customers’ holiday requirements, but offer multiple destinations, not just Scotland.

Examples are Flight Centre, CIE Tours, Globus, Trafalgar Travel Tours.

Fully independent travellers

Fully independent traveller (FIT) tour operators tend to be both source market and destination specialists, meaning they specialise on selling Scotland or the UK as a holiday destination. Destination specialists can often be recognised by their business name.

Examples are Travelling Britain or Schotland op Maad (Scotland Tailor Made).

Tour operators working with each other

Sometimes a tour operator may work with another tour operator. Examples of this would be partners who are based in different countries – a tour operator in Spain may want to sell a Scottish tour to their existing customers. Instead of finding Scottish products themselves, they work with a Scottish tour operator to buy that product.

Examples of Scottish tour operators are Wilderness Scotland, In Your Element, Best of Scotland Holidays and McKinlay Kidd.

Wholesalers

Two women and a tour guide stand outside of a 4x4 vehicle beside a track through trees — Highland Safaris

A wholesaler acts as a middle operator between Scottish businesses and partners in another country.

They work in a single market and sell mainly through tour operators and travel agents. The wholesalers provide travel packages of two or more products from different businesses and publish these on their website and in brochures for partners to browse and buy.

A wholesaler tends to work in large volumes, with bulk bookings of accommodation or experiences.

Occasionally a company will operate as both a wholesaler and a tour operator, and in that instance would sell directly to customers but through the tour operator side of the business.

Examples of wholesalers are Behringer-Touristik, Albatross Group, Norman Allen Group Travel Ltd, and Greatdays Group Travel.

Travel advisors

A travel advisor sells products to customers, which they either buy from you or from DMCs and tour operators. A travel advisor develops extensive knowledge of the travel market so that they can create bespoke packages for their customers. They have built up customer loyalty and developed a customer database, so they will often be making trusted recommendations to their existing customers about what trips they might want to do next. Travel advisors often work with the luxury market, and sometimes work as part of a consortia, such as Virtuoso Travel, AAA Travel and Signature Travel Network.

Distribution partners who buy only from other partners

Travel agents will never buy directly from your business – but it’s useful to understand how they work.

Travel agents

A travel agent (sometimes referred to as reseller) sells products to customers, which they get from the tour operator or wholesaler part of their own company. The travel agent operation can only sell to customers the tours they have online and in their brochures, though they may provide customer feedback and market research back to those purchasing products.

Retail travel agents use prominent shop-front locations and websites to sell a bundle of products as a holiday experience, and then coordinate the reservations.

Both travel agents and advisors offer a level of security to customers as the trips are covered by package holiday regulations in case of cancellation.

Examples of travel agents are Thomas Cook, and DER Touristik.

Other aspects of travel distribution

Meetings, incentives, conferences and events

DMCs also look for products to suit the meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) market, particularly around venues and accommodation but also experiences.

Metasearch engines

Metasearch engines are very similar to OTAs, but are more of a search tool which pulls together results from multiple sources and organises them for the customer.

You can’t sign up to work with them – they simply take the listings and information directly from the OTAs.

Examples are Tripadvisor, Trivago, Kayak and Skyscanner.

Two other platforms where your OTA prices and availabilities are displayed are Google Hotels and Google Things to do.

Find out more on claiming your Google Business Profile.

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