TOUR OPERATOR INSURANCE
Five stops, five kitchens and one group of guests with their own allergies. The underwriter wants to know who prepares the food, how dietary needs reach each venue, and what your guide does between stops.
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 food tour business need in Australia?
A food tour operator generally needs public liability, including products liability for any food you supply yourself, plus professional indemnity for errors in bookings and dietary information. Restaurants, markets, councils and booking platforms can ask for a public liability certificate before they host your groups. The underwriter will ask who prepares the food at each stop and how you collect and pass on guests' allergies. Food and drink you hand out can be treated as a product, but illness from a notifiable or communicable disease can be excluded, and wordings differ between insurers, so don't assume a food illness claim is covered. Raise it with the underwriter before you bind.
If a restaurant on your route makes a guest ill or causes an allergic reaction with its own food, a claim is likely to point at the venue and its insurer. It can still name your business, because the guest bought the ticket from you. General information only. It doesn't take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it isn't legal advice.
A guest declares a peanut allergy at booking, but the note never reaches the third stop. If the guest reacts, the claim looks at the venue's food and at how your business collected and passed on the information. An allergic reaction isn't a disease, but how a claim is treated still depends on the wording, so raise it with the underwriter.
Between venues, your guide buys dumplings from a stall and shares them, or hands round a tasting box you packed. Once you supply the food, it's your product. A reaction, or a broken tooth on something in it, can point at your products liability as well as the maker's.
Guests are sick the next day and blame a stop on your route. Illness from food can be caught by the notifiable-disease and communicable-disease exclusions on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place, so this is a conversation to have with the underwriter before a claim, not after.
Food tours move through markets, laneways and narrow restaurant stairs, and some run after dark. If a guest trips where your guide led the group, the claim lands on your public liability, even though you don't control the footpath or the venue.
A dish arrives on a sizzling plate, or the group gathers at an open grill or a wok station. A burn to a guest crowded into a kitchen at your guide's request is a public liability question, and so is damage to the venue's equipment.
A company books a food tour for 30 staff and you confirm the wrong date with two venues. The client's wasted costs are a professional indemnity matter. PI won't refund the tour price itself, but it can respond to the other losses your error caused.
| Situation | Cover that may respond | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Guest has an allergic reaction to a dish a venue prepared | The venue's products liability, and possibly yours | If passing on the dietary note was your job, expect questions about your process. An allergic reaction isn't a disease, but how a claim is treated still depends on the wording, so raise it with the underwriter. |
| Guest reacts to food you served or packed yourself | Products liability can respond (part of public liability) | Food you supply is treated as a product. On at least one wording we place, the products limit is an annual aggregate. |
| Guests fall ill after eating on the tour | Check with the underwriter | Illness from a notifiable or communicable disease can be excluded under both public liability and PI on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place. Salmonellosis, listeriosis, campylobacteriosis, STEC and hepatitis A are on the national notifiable list, and the communicable disease exclusion doesn't depend on any list. See food and alcohol on tours. |
| You serve unpackaged, ready-to-eat food yourself | Food law first, then products liability | Standard 3.2.2A of the Food Standards Code can require a food safety supervisor and trained food handlers. Ask your council or state food authority whether it applies to you, and tell the underwriter you handle food. |
| Guest trips on a footpath or venue stairs between tastings | Public liability can respond | Can respond to your legal liability, subject to the wording. Where the venue's floor or stairs caused the fall, a claim may go to the venue and its insurer instead. |
| Wrong date, missed booking or wrong dietary list sent to a venue | Professional indemnity can respond | Claims made basis. PI doesn't refund the tour price, but it can respond to other losses your error caused. |
| Guest hurt in your minibus between suburbs | CTP scheme, which may respond, and commercial motor | Tour operator policies we arrange exclude injury caused by a registered vehicle from public liability. The state CTP scheme may respond, but in Queensland, WA and SA it depends on fault, so an injury can fall between the two. |
If a venue asks you to sign an agreement that releases it from liability, or that stops you recovering from it, send it to us before you sign 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 for that claim. Our guide to contract guides, venues and suppliers covers the certificates to collect from each stop.
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 on the national notifiable disease list, and states keep their own lists. The communicable disease exclusion doesn't depend on any list. Ask the underwriter how they would treat a group illness claim.
E-bikes, Segways and scooters are on the excluded activities list of at least one wording we place. A food tour on wheels needs cover from a different market.
If a stop closes or a supplier goes broke, refunds come from your terms. Cancellation is excluded, and the tour operator PI policies we arrange generally exclude supplier insolvency.
Stag and hen parties are excluded on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place. If you sell food and drink tours to party groups, raise it at quote stage.
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.
The venue prepares and serves it. When a restaurant cooks and plates the dish, the food is its product, and a claim is likely to point at its products liability. Your duty is to run the tour carefully: collect allergies accurately, pass them on in writing, and make sure each guest knows which dish is theirs. In 2014, a Japanese tour group ate food from a Gold Coast restaurant and then flew to Sydney, where 12 of the 27 passengers fell ill and four were hospitalised overnight. Investigators linked it to poor food handling at the restaurant, according to a report in the World Health Organization's Western Pacific Surveillance and Response journal.
Your tour supplies it. A tasting box you pack, snacks your guide buys and hands out, or a picnic you put together makes the food your product. Products liability can respond to a reaction or injury it causes. Standard 3.2.2A of the Food Standards Code, which took effect in December 2023, applies to food service, catering and retail businesses that handle unpackaged, potentially hazardous food that is ready to eat. It can require a food safety supervisor certified within the past five years and food handler training. Ask your council or state food authority whether your tour is caught.
Allergen information is a legal requirement, not a courtesy. Plain English allergen labelling has applied to packaged food since 25 February 2024: allergens are declared in bold using set names, with a separate "contains" statement. For food that doesn't need a label, such as a dish at a cafe or takeaway, Food Standards Australia New Zealand says allergen declarations must be displayed with the food or given to the purchaser on request. So you can ask every venue on your route for its allergen information in writing, and you should be able to give the same for anything you hand out.
Illness is the grey area. At least one specialist tour operator wording we place treats food as a product, but it also excludes communicable diseases and any disease notifiable to government, under both public liability and PI. Salmonellosis, listeriosis, campylobacteriosis, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and hepatitis A are all on the national notifiable disease list. States keep their own lists too, and the communicable disease exclusion doesn't depend on any list, so an illness that isn't notifiable can still be excluded. 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. Ask the underwriter how they would treat a group illness claim before you bind, and keep each venue's certificate of currency on file so a claim can be passed to the business whose food caused it. More in food and alcohol on tours and what's covered and what's excluded.
| Who asks | What they ask for | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| GetYourGuide | Liability insurance of an appropriate value for your services and location. No dollar figure is set. The policy is to be written on an occurrence form and kept for two years after the last booking is fulfilled. | The terms also ask for primary and non-contributory cover and a waiver of subrogation. Those are not automatic on at least one specialist tour operator wording we place, so raise them with the underwriter before you accept the terms. |
| Viator | Valid public liability insurance, described from its August 2026 Supplier Agreement as a mandatory global baseline. Viator sets the minimums by activity risk and destination. | Expired or insufficient documents freeze the account from taking new sales until updated documents are approved. |
| Airbnb Experiences | Hosts must maintain liability insurance appropriate for their business and can be asked for proof when they submit an experience. | Airbnb's own program, up to the amount Airbnb states, responds only above the host's own insurance where that applies. It is not a substitute for your policy. |
| 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. | The City's pages don't say whether a tour that only uses footpaths and laneways needs a permit. Ask the City before you assume either way. If a permit applies, $20 million public liability is available, and that limit meets this public liability minimum, but confirm with us how the certificate will satisfy the insurer requirement. |
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 an enterotoxin-producing bacterium and to poor hand washing and food handling at the restaurant. No litigation was reported.
The insurance lesson. The guests bought a tour, so a claim like this can name the tour business even where a restaurant caused the illness. A claim like this is likely to point at the restaurant and its products liability, which is why each venue's certificate of currency belongs on file. 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)
Ask every guest about allergies and intolerances on the booking form. Keep the answers with the booking record, and confirm them again at the meeting point before the first tasting.
Send each stop the dietary list before the tour and keep the sent copy. Ask each venue for its allergen information. For food without a label, declarations must be displayed with the food or provided on request.
If your tour handles unpackaged, ready-to-eat food, check whether Standard 3.2.2A applies. Where it does, it calls for a food safety supervisor certified within the past five years, and food handlers trained in safe handling, contamination, cleaning and hygiene.
Ask each restaurant, bar and stall operator on a regular route for its certificate of currency, and check it each year. It tells you whose policy a claim should go to if their food is the cause.
Quality Tourism Accreditation asks for at least one staff member trained in first aid and available during operations. Carry a stocked kit, know the nearest emergency department on each route, and remind guests with a severe allergy to bring any medication they normally carry.
Record every reaction, illness report, fall and near miss. A death or a serious injury or illness arising from your business must be notified to the work health and safety regulator straight away, and that includes guests. 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 food 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
