The evolution of crisis management in tour operating business was assessed using the examples of
policy and practice in risk and crisis management in two largest leisure travel concerns - TUI AG and Thomas
Cook Group PLC. The analysis has revealed that tour operators have moved from mostly reactive to
increasingly proactive crisis management with well established risk management policies, defined processes for
risk identification and evaluation as well as strategies for risk and crisis mitigation. Since crisis management in
the tour operating business has been insufficiently discussed among tourism academics, the purpose of the paper
was to stimulate more extensive research in this growingly intriguing field. Although the research benefited
from one of the authors’ insider information deriving from her experience of working in the tour operating
business, further primary research studies are needed to deepen the theoretical contribution to this aspect of
tourism studies.