TOUR OPERATOR INSURANCE
Copper stills, barrel stores full of flammable spirit and tastings measured in millilitres. The underwriter wants to know how close your guests get, how much they drink and how they get home.
Premiums and outcomes described are specific to this client and indicative only. Your own terms will depend on your circumstances and the insurer.
THE SHORT ANSWER
What insurance does a distillery tour business need in Australia?
A distillery tour operator generally needs public liability for guests hurt on the tour and damage to a distillery's property, professional indemnity for booking and itinerary errors, and separate motor cover for any vehicle it owns. Distilleries, councils and booking platforms can ask for a certificate of currency before they host your groups. Two things set this tour apart. Spirits are high proof, so a few tastings go further than a wine flight. And still houses and barrel stores hold flammable spirit, where a lighter or a careless guest can do real damage. The underwriter will ask about pour sizes, who pours, still house access and whether guests drive themselves between stops.
At least one specialist tour operator wording we place excludes stag and hen parties, so gin and whisky tours sold to party groups need raising before you bind. General information only. It doesn't take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it isn't legal advice.
Stored spirit gives off flammable vapour. If a guest lights a cigarette or flicks a lighter near the barrels or the still, and a fire damages the distillery, a claim against your tour will turn on what your guide briefed and allowed.
Stills and their heating lines run hot during a distillation run. A guest who leans on a still or grabs a pipe has a burn, and the question is who let the group that close while it was running.
A sample drawn straight from the barrel can be well above bottling strength. A guest who tries several gets drunk faster than the tasting menu suggests, then falls on the barrel store steps or getting back on the bus.
On a self-guided spirit trail, guests follow your map and drive their own cars between tastings. If one crashes, the state CTP scheme may respond, which in Queensland, WA and SA depends on fault, and how public liability treats it depends on the wording. A claim can still ask what your itinerary encouraged.
Liqueurs can contain dairy, nuts or other allergens. If the distillery pours, a claim is likely to point at its products liability. If your tour supplies the bottle, for example at a picnic stop, the product is yours.
| Situation | Cover that may respond | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Guest burned on a still or hurt in the barrel store | Public liability can respond (yours and the distillery's) | Your policy can respond to your legal liability, subject to the wording, for example where your guide took the group into a live production area. The distillery's own insurance is for its premises. |
| Fire or damage at the distillery linked to your guest | Public liability can respond | Damage to someone else's property can be covered where you are legally liable, subject to the wording and the excess. Your written safety briefing will matter. |
| Guest intoxicated after spirit tastings and injured | Public liability can respond, subject to the wording | At least one specialist tour operator wording we place has no liquor exclusion in its base wording. Insurers treat alcohol differently, so confirm with us that no endorsement on your schedule adds one. Expect questions on pour sizes and how your guides end the tasting. |
| Guest hurt in a hands-on gin-making or blending session | Check with the underwriter | Guests operating or standing beside production equipment is a different risk from a tasting, and the underwriter has to agree to it. Tell them who runs the session and hold the venue's certificate. A real example is in the incidents section below. |
| Your tour pours the spirits itself | Liquor licensing first, then confirm with the underwriter | Tasmania, Victoria, SA, the NT and NSW list no tour exemption from licensing, as at October 2026. Queensland, WA and the ACT have narrow ones. See food and alcohol on tours. |
| Guest reacts to a liqueur your tour supplied | Products liability can respond | Drinks you supply are treated as products. Where the distillery pours, a claim is likely to point at its products liability. |
| Crash on a self-drive trail or in your own vehicle | CTP scheme, which may respond, and commercial motor | Tour operator policies we arrange generally exclude injury caused by a registered vehicle used by you or on your behalf from public liability. How a claim about guests driving their own cars is treated depends on the wording, so raise it with the underwriter before you bind. The state CTP scheme may respond, but in Queensland, WA and SA it depends on fault. |
| Overseas distillery tour disrupted and guests want refunds | Not insured | Cancellation is excluded. For tours outside Australia, at least one specialist tour operator wording we place expects you to take reasonable steps so every guest holds comprehensive travel insurance. See insurance for overseas tours. |
Self-drive trails and your own vehicles sit outside public liability. Our guide to vehicles and passenger liability explains how CTP and commercial motor fit alongside it.
Tour operator policies we arrange generally exclude injury from registered vehicles used by you or on your behalf. How a claim about guests driving their own cars is treated depends on the wording, so raise a self-drive trail with the underwriter before you bind. Their state CTP scheme and motor insurance may respond, depending on the state and on fault. If your product is a self-drive trail, say so on the proposal and build responsible drinking and driving into your terms.
Stag and hen parties are excluded on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place. Raise party bookings at quote stage rather than after a claim.
Aircraft of any kind, including drones, are excluded on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place. A helicopter transfer to a remote distillery relies on the aircraft operator's cover and may need a different market for your part.
Tour operator policies we arrange generally exclude fines and penalties from public liability. On at least one wording we place, the PI section has a sub-limited statutory liability extension for some penalties that are insurable at law, and some WHS penalties cannot lawfully be insured.
At least one specialist tour operator wording we place excludes injury from a list of adventure activities, including horse riding, e-bikes and Segways, surfing and scuba diving, and white water rafting. See the adventure activities excluded on one wording we place, grouped, and check the endorsement on your own schedule.
Proof and pour size. A spirit tasting is stronger than a wine or beer tasting, so the numbers matter: how many tastings, how big, and at what strength. Keep the tasting menu fixed and written down, tell guests what to expect, and have the guide stop a guest who has had enough. Where the exemptions for tours exist, they count standard drinks: Queensland's is capped at 2 standard drinks per person per day and the ACT's at 2 standard drinks per person. In NSW, responsible service of alcohol (RSA) training applies to workers involved in the sale, service or supply of alcohol.
If your tour pours (as at October 2026). Where the distillery pours under its own licence, the licence obligations sit with the distillery. If your tour supplies the spirits, for example a bottle opened at a picnic stop, the state decides. Tasmania has no general liquor exemption for tours or vehicles, and its Act treats a means of transport as premises, so the route is a special permit or a special licence under the Liquor Licensing Act 1990. Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory list no tour exemption. NSW has none either, only a tour authorisation on an on-premises licence (Liquor Regulation 2018 cl 46). Queensland (Liquor Act 1992 s 14B(1)(k)), Western Australia (Liquor Control Regulations 1989 regs 8CA and 8F) and the ACT (Liquor Act 2010 s 8A(3)(e)) have narrow exemptions with conditions. Drinks bundled into a ticket price count as a sale. The detail is in food and alcohol on tours.
Flammable stores. Barrel stores and still houses hold spirit that gives off flammable vapour. The distillery sets the rules, and your job is to brief and enforce them: no smoking, no lighters or open flames, and staying behind barriers during a live run. Damage your guest causes to the distillery can be a property damage claim under your public liability where you are legally liable, subject to the wording and the excess, and your briefing records are part of the defence.
Intoxication and the law. The High Court has twice declined to hold a venue responsible for an adult's own drinking: in Cole v South Tweed Heads Rugby League Football Club Ltd [2004] HCA 29, and in C.A.L. No 14 Pty Ltd v Motor Accidents Insurance Board [2009] HCA 47, where it said only an exceptional case would be different. That doesn't stop a guest making a claim, it doesn't answer a claim by someone the drinker injures, and defending a claim costs money. Defence costs for a covered claim, on top of the limit, up to the costs cap, are part of what public liability pays for. See tour operator claims and court cases.
| Who asks | What they ask for | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Viator | Valid public liability insurance. Its August 2026 Supplier Agreement calls it a mandatory global baseline, and Viator sets the minimum by activity risk and destination. | Describe the tour accurately on the listing, including any hands-on session. Expired or insufficient documents freeze new sales. |
| Royal Caribbean Group (distillery visits sold as shore excursions) | General liability of at least US$2,000,000 per incident for land tours, and liquor liability of at least US$2,000,000 per incident where alcohol is served. | The agreement also asks for additional insured status, a waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording. Those need the underwriter's agreement before you sign, because waiving recovery rights without consent can remove cover on the tour operator policies we arrange. |
| Quality Tourism Accreditation | Current public liability of at least $10 million, with a certificate of currency confirming the policy is active. | It also asks for documented emergency and evacuation procedures, which is where your still house briefing belongs. |
On 9 April 2022, during a booked gin-making experience run by a winery at its own distillery, with no tour seller involved, a 330-litre still exploded. Its heating elements had been switched on without being fully covered by liquid, and ethanol vapour ignited. Nine people were hurt, two staff and seven guests, with burns and other injuries. A stand-in operator had only one of the two instruction documents. The company pleaded guilty to WorkSafe Victoria charges, was fined $50,000 without conviction plus $4,015 in costs, and ended the experience.
The insurance lesson. Once guests take part in production, the venue's public liability and the tour business's public liability can both be in play, and the injured staff are a workers compensation matter. If you send guests to a hands-on session, hold the venue's certificate of currency and ask what written operating procedure exists and who is trained to run it.
Source: The Border Mail, report of the sentencing (October 2024)
A Tasmanian hotel licensee had agreed to hold a patron's motorcycle keys and ring his wife. The patron later refused the call, demanded the keys, rode off intoxicated and died. The High Court allowed the hotel's appeals. It held that no relevant duty of care was owed, that the proposed duty conflicted with the patron's autonomy, and that this was not an exceptional case. The case did not involve a tour.
The insurance lesson. The decision supports the principle that an adult who chooses to drink and then drive or ride carries responsibility for that choice. It doesn't remove the risk of a claim against a tour business that built the trail, and one judge noted that future cases will turn on liquor licensing laws and the civil liability statutes. Public liability pays defence costs for a covered claim, on top of the limit, up to the costs cap. Build drinking and driving rules into your terms and your itinerary.
Before guests enter a still house or barrel store, brief no smoking, no lighters, no vapes and no open flames, and stay behind barriers during a live run. Record that the briefing was given.
If guests make or blend gin, ask the distillery what written operating procedure covers the equipment and who is trained to run it. In the Rutherglen case, a stand-in operator had only one of two instruction documents.
Set the number, size and strength of tastings per stop and write it down. Offer water and food. Give guides authority to stop a guest's tastings, and brief that authority at the start.
For self-drive trails, put a designated driver rule and spittoons in the itinerary and booking terms. For guided tours, plan how a guest who can't continue gets home safely.
Collect certificates of currency from each distillery and any charter or transfer company at the start and each year. At least one specialist tour operator wording we place expects reasonable steps so contractors hold at least $10 million liability in Australia.
Have a first aid trained guide and a kit that covers burns. An explosion, fire or serious burn arising from a business is notifiable to the work health and safety regulator immediately under the model laws. Tell us early and don't admit fault.
We've found tour operator public liability hard to place on its own in the past, and PI and public liability often had to be split across insurers. We approach several specialist insurers and underwriting agencies. Some write PI and public liability together, others write one or the other, and we put the cover together to suit the tours you run, for tour operators and for travel agents that run their own tours, subject to each insurer's assessment.
We don't publish a separate price for distillery tours. As a general guide, across the tour types the markets we approach are set up to quote, subject to each insurer's assessment, combined PI and public liability for a small tour operator costs approximately $1,200 to $1,800 a year including fees. As at October 2026. Your price depends on the activities, destinations, revenue, limits and claims history, and it can fall outside that range. It is not a quote. See what drives the premium.
A placement from September 2026. A new NSW-based cultural tour operator designs immersive programs for groups visiting Australia and for Australian groups visiting Asia, with local tour companies running the coaches and accommodation. It needed a certificate of currency urgently. Result: $20 million public liability and $1 million professional indemnity on one combined policy, worldwide territory excluding US jurisdiction, placed the same week on that occasion at approximately $1,850 including fees. This is one past placement, not a quote. Your price and terms depend on your risk. Read the case study.
Sources referred to on this page
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
RELATED GUIDES
QUOTE REQUEST
Tell us the tours you run, where they go, group sizes, who supplies transport and venues, your annual revenue, and the limit you need on your certificate.
Send us your tour descriptions and itinerary, and we will take them to the specialist markets that write tour operators and come back to you with the options available.
Last updated: 01/10/2026
