World’s oldest travel agency collapsed overnight, lakhs of tourists stranded

Who could have ever imagined that the oldest travel firm in the world, Thomas Cook, would collapse one day? But it happened on Monday night when the company collapsed, leaving more than five lakh tourists stranded across the globe. The travel firm which was started in the year 1841, was under huge debt, and was also struggling hard to keep up with tough online competition. Besides, the 178 years old company also suffered massive drop in bookings recently because of Brexit’s uncertainty.

The travel giant declared bankruptcy after failing to get £200 million (Rs 1,770 crore) from private investors, which was its last resort. The story of huge debt goes back to the year 2007 when the firm decided to merge with another travel company, but the merger proved to be a disastrous decision. More than 22,000 staff were asked to leave and were jobless.Peter Fankhauser, the Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Cook Group, in a statement apologised to its customers saying "I would like to apologise to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years.”
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister has promised to get stranded British travellers home. He also informed that the British government had rejected a request from the travel company for a bailout of about 150 million pounds ($187.1 million).

The UK Government has hired planes to get Bristish tourists back from all over, a mission named ‘Operation Matterhorn,’ which is also Britain’s “largest repatriation in peacetime history”!