German Tour Operators Compared

TUI is Germany's largest tour operator, DERTOUR (REWE Group) is its closest rival, and alltours and schauinsland-reisen compete hard on price for Mediterranean beach packages. For most package tours from Germany, the honest answer is: compare the exact hotel and week across all four, because no operator is cheapest across the board.

What should not vary is protection. Since the FTI insolvency in June 2024, more travelers ask the right question before paying a deposit: what happens to my money if the operator fails? This guide covers that too, because it matters more than any brand ranking.

Germany is one of Europe's biggest travel markets. The German Travel Association (DRV) reports a record 87.9 billion euros spent on pre-booked multi-day holidays in 2025 in its facts and figures report. A large share of that money flows through tour operators as classic package holidays: flight, transfer and hotel sold as one contract.

The market got smaller at the top in 2024. FTI, at the time the third-largest operator, filed for insolvency in June 2024 and disappeared from the shelves. Since then the mainstream choice for package tours from Germany has effectively narrowed to TUI, DERTOUR and the two large family-owned operators, alltours and schauinsland-reisen, plus a long tail of specialists.

Independent testers do look at this market: Stiftung Warentest has compared package holiday providers on price, fairness and sustainability. Their consistent finding: differences between operators are real, but they show up per trip, not as one permanent winner.

Package travel protection in Germany is not a marketing promise. It is law. § 651r of the German Civil Code (BGB) obliges every operator selling packages in Germany to secure customer prepayments and repatriation costs against insolvency. The rule implements the EU Package Travel Directive 2015/2302, so the same baseline applies across the EU.

Since November 2021, German operators with more than 10 million euros in annual package revenue must obtain this protection through the Deutscher Reisesicherungsfonds (DRSF), a central fund created after the Thomas Cook collapse. Smaller operators may still use insurance or bank guarantees. For you as a customer the mechanics are identical: you receive a Sicherungsschein, and if the operator fails, the protection provider refunds your prepayment or brings you home.

What packages also give you, beyond insolvency cover, is a single liable contract partner for the whole trip. The consumer advice centres explain these rights in detail on verbraucherzentrale.de (German). If the hotel is a building site or the flight is cancelled, you claim against the operator, not against three different companies.

Most operator websites, contracts and hotlines run in German. English booking paths exist but are patchy. A few things make life easier if you live in Germany and book here:

A local travel agency can be worth more to you than to a native speaker. The package costs the same as on the operator's website, and you get a person who handles the German-language paperwork and phone calls when a flight time changes.

Pay attention to how you pay. A deposit of 20 percent is common at booking, the rest is typically due a few weeks before departure. Paying by credit card adds a second safety layer and often includes travel-related insurance benefits; our credit card comparison shows which cards suit travel spending. And if you would rather spread the cost of a big family trip over several months than drain your buffer, compare rates in our loan comparison first. An arranged installment is almost always cheaper than sliding into an overdraft.

One more habit worth keeping: after booking, file the Sicherungsschein together with your confirmation. If you ever need it, you will need it fast.