MORE holidays have been canceled after one of Europe’s biggest tour operators went bust.
At the beginning of this month, the travel agency FTI went into administration.
This affected Youtravel, the UK bed bank, as well as Meeting Point, which is used by tour operators to book holidays through.
Youtravel.com initially confirmed that all bookings until June 11 had been cancelled. This was later extended to July 5.
They have now confirmed that the holidays until July 26 will be cancelled.
Youtravel said: “Over the past three weeks, our management has been actively negotiating with the appointed administrator of FTI Group and going through the mergers and acquisitions process to secure our future” said Youtravel.
“While we hope for an early positive conclusion to these talks, we have taken the difficult decision to cancel all bookings up to and including July 26, 2024.
“We understand the inconvenience this may cause and sincerely apologize for any disruption.”
Up to 30,000 hotel bookings are believed to have been affected in resorts in Cyprus, with 30 resorts in Spain also affected.
Holiday in Malta, Morocco and Turkey also face cancellation.
The main tour operator affected by the cancellation in the UK is Loveholidays.
Earlier this month, holidaymakers found themselves without hotel rooms or forced to pay for their holidays again.
Annie Cox, 24, was forced to pay an extra £900 when she went on holiday to the Labranda Targa Club Aqua Parc in Morocco.
She said: “They let us check in and then kicked us out of our room, cut off our wristbands and left us to rot in reception for seven hours.”
Another holidaymaker said they were forced to pay an extra £1,500 because the hotel cost £200 a night.
However, a spokesman for Christmas Love earlier told Sun Online Travel that a “small proportion” of holidaymakers were affected and they would get in touch to offer alternative accommodation.
How does the FTI collapse affect the British?
The Sun’s head of travel, Lisa Minot, explained what this means for British tourists.
“The collapse of Germany’s third largest tour operator may not seem like something that would concern British holidaymakers at first glance.
“However, many of the group’s subsidiaries included a UK bed bank called youtravel.com – this company would be used by UK travel agencies such as loveholidays.com to package holidays.
“Dynamic packaging, travel agents would pair accommodation from youtravel.com with flights.
“Any dynamic package would have to have ATOL protection because the travel agent is selling you the flights and one other element, in this case the hotels.
“Many holidaymakers in the UK will have no idea their trips are affected as travel agencies like Loveholidays would bundle youtravel.com hotel rooms with flights.
“The situation can be serious for all concerned as finding alternative hotel accommodation at this busy time of year will be a challenge.
“UK holidaymakers should make sure they have very good travel insurance and check the ATOL certificate they are legally required to obtain when buying a tour from a tour operator or tour operator.
They said: “We are very sorry for the insolvency of the FTI Group, the parent company of our accommodation and transfer partners youtravel.com and Meeting Point.
“This news only affects a small number of our customers and we are working hard to ensure their holidays are not disrupted.
“This is a rapidly changing situation, so we will remain in contact with affected customers throughout the situation and apologize for any inconvenience.”
They added: “We are aware that a small number of hotels are asking our customers to pay again for their rooms.
“Loveholidays is absolutely committed to covering these costs and we are working with affected customers and hotels get involved to make sure that happens.”
Loveholidays are ATOL protected, which means that anyone forced to pay extra for their holiday will be refunded.
Here’s what to do if you ever find out your flights have been cancelled.