Have you booked a photography workshop in 2024? Is it legal?

Hello and welcome to a new three part blog series. I have been relentlessly debating with myself for months as to whether this is something I should write about or not. However, in light of a recent event in the news I feel that now is the time to write about this.

This blog post is going to have three parts to it. In the first part, I am going to talk about what to look out for when researching and ultimately booking yourself onto a photography workshop, tour or holiday. We will discuss the imposing question of whether the workshops are actually operating legally?

The second part, which will be released a little later will go on to talk about how we approach photography workshops and tours here at The Photographic Adventure Company. The final part will go into the benefits of attending a photography workshop.

In August 2023 I founded The Photographic Adventure Company Ltd. The business focuses on running photography tours and workshops, or to put it another way - photography holidays. But what exactly does that mean? What is a photography holiday? And what should you be looking out for?

If you have an interest in photography then you are more than likely to have seen a plethora of photography workshops, tours and holidays being advertised, whether online, through social media or in magazines and publications. For the purposes of this article, I am predominantly going to use the term ‘photography workshop’ as this is the term most commonly referred to - however everything still applies for anything being marketed as a ‘photography tour’ or ‘photography holiday’. In reality, they are all the same thing.

The first point to highlight is that photography workshops can vary massively. Some can be half day in length, some can be full day and others are multi-day workshops. It is the latter that I am really interested in talking about here, as this is the area that we focus on at The Photographic Adventure Company and the format of workshop that needs the most consideration and awareness.

Many people would agree that attending a multi-day workshop is a fantastic way to further enhance your photography knowledge. They are often guided by inspiring and sometimes award winning photographers. There are some incredible photographers out there running amazing workshops from incredible locations across the UK to bucket list travel destinations. However, not is all quite as it might seem on the surface. So, what should you really be looking out for?

Before even looking into the photography elements of an advertised workshop, what you should really be looking out for is whether the company or individual running & selling the workshop has the correct financial protection, also known as financial failure insurance in place to be compliant and operating legally, in line with the 2018 package travel regulations. There are very strict regulations in place for any business, big or small, operating in the travel market that sells holiday packages and most multi-day photography workshops fall into this category. I will let you into something quite shocking which I discovered when setting up The Photographic Adventure Company - the majority of multi-day photography workshops on the market are not compliant with the travel regulations and therefore, not legally compliant. Furthermore, there are some major providers of photography workshops who are not operating legally within the regulations. I am not going to reveal any names or businesses who fall into that category, the purpose of this article is not to name and shame but to raise awareness. A number of these workshops are supported by leading brands and manufacturers within the photography industry.

The regulations apply to anyone selling packages with two or more elements included in the price that you pay. So if the photography workshop includes accommodation alongside photography tuition, then it qualifies. If it also includes transportation or any further elements included in the price, then it qualifies beyond any doubt! The regulations apply to both UK based workshops as well as international trips. Even if flights are not included financial protection is still required by law.

There is a common mistake where providers are telling their customers they must get their own personal travel insurance. Yes, you do require your own travel insurance, even for UK holidays but this insurance does not cover you in the event of the tour operator you have booked with going insolvent before or even during the trip. You wouldn’t jump into an uninsured taxi thinking that if you were involved in a crash, your personal car insurance would pay out, would you? It’s the same with personal travel insurance. Your personal travel insurance wouldn’t pay out if the business that you booked with were to crash and become insolvent. You might also think you are protected if booking with a credit card, however unless booking direct with a supplier, then you may find a refund hard to come by. This would defeat the point of booking through a tour operator. You book through a tour operator as a means of making your life easier and you trust that they have all the right insurance and protection in place. So why are so many photography workshops not following the regulations? The bottom line is that no one should be selling workshops, tours or holiday packages without financial protection (financial failure) in place, through a scheme approved by the travel industry such as ABTA (or an ABTA approved provider), ABTOT or ATOL if flights are included.

What this means for you is that if you book with one of these providers that is not compliant, then your hard earned money is not protected in the correct way and you could be left seriously out of pocket or even stranded abroad should something happen to that business before or even during the workshop. So the first thing to do in order for you to avoid this disastrous situation is to check exactly what insurance the photographer or business selling the workshop has in place. If they tell you that they have public liability insurance in place then look elsewhere, as this is very far from what is required to be running and selling tours and holidays, often disguised as ‘workshops’. Although yes, they do also require public liability insurance. The business or photographer who is taking the money for the photography workshop should have this information clearly stated on their website. You can usually find it on the home page, tour pages or in their terms and conditions. If you have the correct insurance in place, you let your potential customers know. Why wouldn’t you want to reassure them? So if you don’t see it…don’t book it.

To put this into perspective, I have only come across three other providers of photography workshops here in the UK that have the correct level of financial protection in place. The cost of financial protection isn’t cheap, especially after the effects of COVID on the travel industry, but it is a legal requirement nonetheless. So, if you see a photography workshop and think ‘that’s cheap’ or even ‘that’s expensive’, then perhaps dig a little deeper into the reasons why. The more expensive one might just be the legal one (although this isn’t guaranteed). If the company is including flights in their packages, then they also need to be ATOL protected.

Other key things to look out for in relation to this: Are they a Ltd company or a registered business and are they a registered Tour Operator? Would you really book a holiday with someone who isn’t a registered tour operator?

Remember, this only applies to those multi-day workshops being offered as packages (two or more elements included in the price).

Once you are confident the business is operating legally, the next step is to delve into exactly what is being offered in the price you are paying.

In the second part of this article, I will talk about how we approach photography workshops and photography tours at The Photographic Adventure Company.