Like a church is a church because someone calls it a church, a tour broker is a tour broker because someone says that they are a tour broker. There is no requirement for a license. If you do operate a business there may be a need for you to get a federal tax number and your county or city may require you to get a business license. As far as needing a license to become a tour broker - there is no license required. From the mid 1930's until the 1980s transportation was strictly controlled by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Under the Deregulation Act of 1982, competition was allowed and the need for federal authority became a thing of the past.
Depending on where you are you may need some sort of business license. Call your local county office and ask for the office in charge of business licenses. This should be easy as all they really want is for you to file some paperwork and pay them a small fee.
If you are going to be making money (and why else get in the business?) you are going to have to get a federal tax number. This number is called a Tax Identification Number (TIN) and is used in business much as your Social Security number is used for benefits.
I have looked at various sites on the Internet purporting to be concerned with how to become a tour operator. Most do not seem to understand what a tour operator is or does. Those which got close to the concept either offers to teach or provided links to sites which may prepare someone how to be a tour guide. A tour guide is not a tour operator - at best, a tour guide works for a tour operator.
A tour operator runs his/her own business
It's as simple as that - you own and run the business. If you plan to make a profit you follow this rule - buy low, sell high. People tend to make things too difficult. You buy at one price and sell at another price, easy, huh?
The real "trick" to making money in the tour business is to understand that concept of breaking even (BE). The break even point is where you don't lose money and where you don't make money. To help you understand this idea you have to understand that there are two types of costs in most businesses - fixed and variable. A fixed cost is one that will occur whether you have 10 clients or 46. Office rent is a fixed cost. You have to pay the rent whether or not you operate any tours. A variable cost is a cost that is dependent on something else. An example of a variable cost would be the cost an attraction (theme park). If you have 20 clients the total cost of the attraction is dependent (variable) on the number of clients you have.
The lack of good information on this business led me to believe that those in this business do not want competition or they don't have time to write about how they run their business. A well thought out tour, advertised correctly, can bring in thousands in revenue. For example, suppose that you operate a seven- day bus tour. The tour sells for $985.00 (per person, double occupancy) and you have 36 people go on your tour. The gross revenue on this tour will be over $35,000.00 and you should be able to retain at least $10,000.00 of that amount.
IS THIS THE SORT OF BUSINESS FOR YOU?
It is possible to may some serious money in this business - you could also lose money. Here are some basic requirements that you should have before starting such a business.
You should like working with people
You should not panic when things go from good to bad to even worse
You should be able to organize things easily
You should have at least a working knowledge of certain computer programs - word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail
You should have a copy machine and a fax machine
You should have at least one telephone
You should have at least one fairly up-to-date computer
What sort of tours and what do I do next?
The world is your oyster
This is really the fun part - you can go anywhere! Successful brokers operate three-day tours from Denver into the nearby Rocky Mountains and seven-day tours to Branson, Missouri. Brokers on the east coast offer tours into New England and parts of Eastern Canada as well as longer tours into the American southwest.
Brokers in Seattle do a good business operating tours into the Copper Canyon of Mexico. Some brokers offer tours to musical events, art showings, and short trips to New York City for Christmas shopping.
Where to go is up to you as long as you keep it reasonable. Going to Iraq now may not be the best choice but there is a company in the UK offering and operating tours into Iraq - make sure that your clients sign many disclosures stating that you are not at fault in case of your death. Given the current state of the economy it may be wise to limit your offerings to North America but tours to Costa Rica seem to sell very well.