This week, a big German travel combine, FTI Touristik, collapsed. It was the third-largest tour operator in Europe.
The company is telling passengers: “All travel arrangements booked via FTI Touristik GmbH with a departure date up to and including Friday, 5 July 2024, unfortunately have to be cancelled.”
The number of UK holidaymakers directly affected – ie having packages booked with the defunct German travel giant – is vanishingly low. Furthermore, they are covered by the German Travel Security Fund.
But two subsidiaries of the FTI group are “business-to-business” middlemen that provide hotels, transfers and excursions to online travel agents (OTAs).
They are Youtravel.com and Meeting Point International. Both offshoots are in…