Assurance
Licensed, insured, under contract
Cotton Castle holds Group A Turkish travel agency licence no. 12396. Here is what that obligates us to do — and, just as usefully, what it does not cover.
A Group A licence (no. 12396) and TÜRSAB membership carry three obligations — a written contract, the insurance the rules require for package tours, and Ministry inspection.
What “Group A” actually means
In Türkiye, travel agencies are licensed under Law no. 1618 on Travel Agencies and the Association of Travel Agencies. Agencies are classified into groups, and Group A is the one permitted to carry out the full range of travel agency services — organising and selling tours, not merely acting as an intermediary for someone else’s.
Cotton Castle Travel is a Group A agency. The operating licence is issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism:
- Registered title: CCT Turizm ve Seyahat Acenteliği Ltd. Şti.
- Group A travel agency licence no.: 12396
- Member of: TÜRSAB (Association of Turkish Travel Agencies)
- Head office: Merkezefendi, Denizli
Membership of TÜRSAB is not optional for a licensed agency in Türkiye — it comes with the licence. The two together are what separates a regulated agency from a person with a van and a website.
The three obligations that come with it
This is the part almost no agency bothers to market, which is strange, because it is the strongest thing any of us can say.
1 — The service goes into a contract. Under the Turkish regulations governing package travel contracts, the organiser has to give you pre-contractual information and put the arrangement in writing: what the trip includes, the conditions for cancellation and change, and who is responsible for performing it. A verbal agreement is not how a regulated trip starts.
2 — Package tours carry compulsory insurance. Turkish package travel rules require the organiser to hold the insurance the legislation prescribes. This protects the money you have paid in the situations the regulation defines. It is a condition of operating, not a product upsell.
3 — The agency is inspected. A licence is issued by the Ministry, it has a validity period, and it can be reviewed. An agency operating without one is not a cheaper version of a licensed agency; it is a different thing altogether, and you have no counterparty when something goes wrong.
What it does not cover — read this part
An honest guarantee has edges, so here are ours.
- A day tour is not automatically a package tour. The compulsory package insurance applies to package tours as defined in the regulations. If you book a single service — one transfer, one entry, one activity — your written offer will state what is and is not covered rather than implying the package rules apply.
- It is not your personal travel or health insurance. Agency insurance protects the contractual relationship. Cover for your own illness, accident, luggage or trip cancellation is a separate policy that you buy, and we would rather tell you that now than after a hospital visit.
- It does not make weather or aviation decisions ours. A licence does not put a balloon in the air. What it does is oblige us to have agreed with you in writing, beforehand, what happens if the balloon stays on the ground.
How to verify us
The licence number and registered title above appear in the footer of every page of this site and on the contract you sign. When you request an offer, both should appear on the document — not a trading name, not a personal account. If the name on the payment instruction is not the name on the contract, stop and ask why.
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