Over the last 12 months, airlines like Spirit Airlines (SAVE) and Silver Airways were not the only ones to run into serious financial troubles. A number of operators offering cruises, tours, and various vacation packages have also had to seek bankruptcy protection.
In June 2025, British travel companies Great Little Escapes and Jetline Holidays both ceased their operations after losing their licenses amid months of sustained financial losses.
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After being declared bankrupt by a judge at the end of July, Swedish tour provider MixxTravel also had to immediately cancel bookings and, in some cases, tours that were already in progress.
The sudden shutdown left approximately 1,300 travelers who were on tours at the time stranded in countries such as Greece, Cyprus, and Türkiye as the company worked to get them home using money from insurance and travel guarantees.
“We are doing everything possible to minimize the consequences”: travel company
Based out of Romania, tour operator Cocktail Holidays is now also teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, as several travelers reported arriving to their destination and discovering their hotel bookings were invalid.
Launched in 1993 and based in Bucharest, Cocktail Holidays sold group tours to Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Greece, and Cyprus.
In a statement on the customer complaints, the tour operator admitted financial problems and said between 400 and 500 travelers are currently affected by the cancellations.
Related: Travel company files for bankruptcy, cancels tours and trips
“We apologize to all those affected – tourists, agents, and partners,” Cocktail Holidays said in its statement posted on Facebook. “We understand the impact of this situation and we assure you that we are doing everything possible to minimize the consequences and with the support of the Romanian tour operators Christian Tour, Paralela 45, Dertour and Anima Wings, Coral Travel, as well as the cooperating agencies with which we have been working for years, we resolved the situation of most tourists at the destination.”
The travel companies mentioned above stepped up to help take on any stranded tourist to existing tours or get them home through new bookings. Without elaborating on the reasons for the sudden lags in operations, Cocktail Holidays said that it ran into “temporary cash flow problems caused by the difficult economic conditions.”
Cocktail Holidays also sold group tours to cities across Spain.
Image source: Shutterstock
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The operator has not yet formally filed for bankruptcy protection but the Romanian Ministry of Economy confirmed that it was aware of the company’s financial troubles.
At the moment, it is receiving daily updates on whether the company will be able to make the last-minute creditor payments to avoid a full shutdown.
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The largest tour company bankruptcy in recent memory occurred when FTI Touristik GmbH suddenly shut down and canceled over 175,000 tours in June 2024.
Although the German travel giant had secured €125 million in new funding just a few months earlier, Chief Executive Karl Markgraf announced the bankruptcy by saying the company’s “increased need for liquidity […] could no longer be bridged.”
The equivalent of names such as Contiki and EF Educational Tours in English-speaking countries, FTI Touristik was often described as “too big to fail” by travel industry analysts, even amid the challenges facing the entire industry.
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