Where the money actually goes
A travel agent is paid a commission by the tour operator, out of the operator’s own margin. That is why a packaged Marmaris holiday booked through a good agent lands at the same price as the one on the comparison site, and sometimes below it, agents hold group allocations and see fares that never reach a public search page.
What changes is what sits behind the booking. A package sold by a UK agent is typically covered by ATOL when it includes a flight, and by ABTA’s scheme where it does not, agents confirm their own level of protection on our platform. Every agent listed on Find A Travel Agent is verified by a person, not an algorithm.