TOUR OPERATOR INSURANCE
Twenty stalls, a crowd with prams and dogs, and tastings handed over by people you don't employ. The underwriter wants to know whose food it is, how big your group is and what the market allows.
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 farmers market tour business need in Australia?
A farmers market tour operator generally needs public liability for guests hurt on your tour and damage or injury caused by your group, plus professional indemnity for booking errors. Markets, councils and booking platforms can ask for a certificate of currency before your groups can run, and a market may set its own rules on group sizes and commercial tours. What sets this tour apart is that the food on the tables belongs to the stallholders. Tastings they hand out are their products, and a claim about them is likely to point at their insurance. Food you buy and share, or pack into a take-home bag, becomes your product. The underwriter will ask about group sizes, crowds and who supplies what.
Guests' own purchases are between the guest and the stallholder. Your cover is for your tour: the route through the crowd, your briefing and anything you supply. General information only. It doesn't take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it isn't legal advice.
Tent pegs, gazebo weights, power leads and crates sit at ankle height in narrow aisles. If a guest trips while your guide is steering the group through the busiest part of the market, the claim lands on your public liability, even though you don't control the stalls.
A stallholder hands your guest a piece of cheese or a spoonful of dukkah containing nuts. A claim is likely to point at the stallholder's products liability. If your guide knew about the allergy and steered the guest to that stall anyway, your part will be looked at too.
Your guide buys a loaf and a jar of honey and shares them with the group, or packs a take-home bag. Once you supply it, it's your product. A broken tooth on a stone or a reaction to an unlisted ingredient points at your products liability.
Twenty guests stop in front of a stall and block the aisle. A pram tips, or another shopper is pushed against a hot plate at a food stall. Injury to a member of the public caused by your group is a public liability claim too.
Early set-ups and late pack-ups mean stallholder vans reversing through the car park. The driver's CTP scheme may respond to an injury, which in Queensland, WA and SA depends on fault, and how your public liability treats it depends on the wording. Choosing a route through the loading area is still your guide's call.
| Situation | Cover that may respond | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Guest trips on a gazebo weight or crate while on your tour | Public liability can respond | Can respond to your legal liability, subject to the wording. Where the stallholder's setup caused it, the stallholder's own policy may respond instead. |
| Guest reacts to a stallholder's sample | The stallholder's products liability | Their product, so a claim is likely to point at their insurance. Your process matters if you knew about the allergy. For unpackaged food, a stallholder must display allergen declarations or give them on request. |
| Guest reacts to food you bought and shared, or packed for them | Products liability can respond | Food you supply can be treated as a product. |
| Another shopper is hurt by your group, or a stall is damaged | Public liability can respond | Can respond to your legal liability for injury to other people and damage to their property caused by your tour, subject to the wording and the excess. |
| Guests fall ill after tastings at the market | Check with the underwriter | Notifiable and communicable diseases are excluded under public liability and PI on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place. Salmonellosis, listeriosis, campylobacteriosis, STEC and hepatitis A are nationally notifiable. See food and alcohol on tours. |
| Market closed by weather or cancelled on the day | Not insured | Cancellation is excluded. Refunds are governed by your terms and the Australian Consumer Law. |
| You also run a stall at a market or expo to sell tours | Public liability can respond | At least one specialist tour operator wording we place includes an extension for attending trade fairs, shows and markets, subject to its terms. |
If a market asks you to note it as an interested party or to sign an indemnity, send it to us first so we can check how it sits with your insurance, and have your lawyer review the contract. On at least one specialist tour operator wording we place, liability you take on only because of a contract can be covered only to the extent you'd have been liable anyway. Where the market sits on council land or in a park, the council can set its own figure: see park and council permit insurance requirements.
Your policy is for your liability, not the stallholders'. Their food, stalls and staff sit with their own public and products liability.
E-bikes, Segways and scooters are excluded on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place. A market tour by e-bike needs cover from a different insurer.
Notifiable and communicable diseases are excluded under public liability and PI on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place. Wordings differ: at least one published Australian tour operator wording has no communicable disease exclusion in its base wording, though endorsements and schedules can change any wording, while the wording we place mentioned above has one. Food you hand out is a product, but don't assume a food illness claim is covered.
If a guest buys faulty produce, that's between them and the stallholder, not your policy.
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.
Stallholders' samples. When a stallholder hands your guest a taste, it's their product, and a claim about something wrong with it is likely to point at their products liability. If you run a regular route, ask the stallholders you visit whether they hold public and products liability. It's a short conversation, and it tells you whose policy a claim should go to.
Food you supply. Once your guide buys food and shares it, or you pack a tasting bag, you're the supplier as far as your guest is concerned. At least one specialist tour operator wording we place treats food and drink you supply as a product under products liability. Illness from a notifiable or communicable disease can still be excluded, so check with the underwriter rather than assume. Salmonellosis, listeriosis, campylobacteriosis, STEC and hepatitis A are on the national notifiable disease list. States keep their own lists too, and the communicable disease exclusion doesn't depend on any list.
Allergens at a stall. Market food is a mix of packaged and unpackaged. Packaged jars and loaves must declare allergens in bold using set names, with a separate "contains" statement, under the plain English allergen labelling rules in force since 25 February 2024. For unpackaged samples, Food Standards Australia New Zealand says the declarations must be displayed with the food or provided to the purchaser on request. Brief your guide to ask before a guest with a declared allergy tastes anything, and to skip the stall if the stallholder can't answer. See food and alcohol on tours.
The market's rules. A market is someone else's event, and it may sit on council or private land. Before you bring groups, ask the market operator whether commercial tours are allowed, what group sizes suit the aisles, and whether they want to see your certificate of currency or be noted on it. If they ask you to sign an agreement that releases them from liability, send it to us first so we can check how it sits with your insurance, and have your lawyer review the contract. Waiving recovery rights without the insurer's consent can remove cover on the tour operator policies we arrange. Our public liability guide has more on what the policy covers and where it stops.
| Who asks | What they ask for | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Brisbane City Council (commercial activity in a Council park) | A certificate of currency for public liability of $20 million, lodged with the application. The page lists tours among the activity types that need permission. | Relevant where a market or your meeting point is in a Council park. $20 million public liability is available, and that limit meets this public liability minimum. Confirm with us how the certificate will satisfy the rest of the application. |
| City of Gold Coast (commercial activities in parks, which lists guided tours) | Public liability of at least $20 million, plus CPR and first aid certificates, a risk management plan and a site plan. | The first aid and risk plan requirements are part of the permit, not just the insurance. Have them ready before you apply. |
| City of Melbourne (where your activity needs a permit in municipal public space) | Public liability of at least $20 million for a single claim, in the applicant's name, from an APRA-authorised insurer, with the City of Melbourne named as an interested party. | Being noted as an interested party needs to be requested, and the City requires an APRA-authorised insurer, so confirm with us how the certificate will satisfy both. Ask the City and the market operator what applies to your tour before you assume a permit is or isn't needed. |
| GetYourGuide | Liability insurance of an appropriate value, with no dollar figure set, and insurer, policy and expiry details kept current in the supplier portal. | The policy must also extend to your indemnity to GetYourGuide. On at least one specialist tour operator wording we place, liability taken on by contract can be covered only as far as you'd have been liable anyway, so raise the terms with the underwriter. |
An organised Japanese tour group ate food from a Gold Coast restaurant and then flew to Sydney. Twelve of the 27 passengers were vomiting within minutes of each other and four were hospitalised overnight. Investigators linked the outbreak to poor hand washing and food handling at the restaurant. No litigation was reported. It was a restaurant, not a market, but it shows a group falling ill together from food a third party prepared.
The insurance lesson. Guests buy the tour from you, so a claim can name your business even where a stallholder's food is the cause. A claim like this is likely to point at the stallholder's products liability, which is why it helps to know which stallholders on your route hold cover. On at least one specialist tour operator wording we place, illness from a notifiable or communicable disease can be excluded, so ask the underwriter how a group illness would be treated.
Source: WHO Western Pacific Surveillance and Response journal (2015)
In August 2013, at least 12 people, mostly children, fell ill after visiting the farm-animal petting area at the Ekka in Brisbane, and four tested positive for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. It was an outbreak among visitors to an agricultural show's animal nursery, not a tour group. It is relevant where a market or a farm stop on the same day has an animal nursery or petting pen.
The insurance lesson. STEC is on the national notifiable disease list, and at least one specialist tour operator wording we place excludes diseases notifiable to government, so prevention matters more than the policy. If your route passes animals, build in handwashing before the next tasting and keep children supervised.
Source: Food Safety News (August 2013)
Ask the market operator whether commercial groups are allowed, at what size and at what times, and keep the answer in writing. If the site is council land, ask the council what permit applies.
Set a maximum group size that fits the aisles, split larger bookings between two guides, and use fixed meeting points. Stop the group beside a stall, not in front of it, so prams and other shoppers can pass.
Collect allergies at booking. At each stall, ask for the allergen declarations before a guest with a declared allergy tastes anything. For unpackaged food they must be displayed or provided on request.
If your guide buys and shares food or packs a take-home bag, keep the stallholder's name and the product's ingredient and allergen information for each item. At least one published Australian tour operator proposal form asks whether food is prepared by you or bought complete.
Gold Coast's park permit asks for CPR and first aid certificates and a risk management plan. Wherever you run, have a first aid trained guide, walk the route before opening for pegs, leads and loading vehicles, and avoid the car park at pack-up.
Record every trip, reaction and complaint, including incidents involving other shoppers. A serious injury or illness arising from your business must be notified to the work health and safety regulator immediately. Tell us early, and don't admit fault on the spot.
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 farmers market 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
