Updated June 2011
The spate of recent travel companies hitting hard times and ceasing to trade has attracted the usual media frenzy and the concomitant horror stories of stranded passengers and those being presented with hotel bills for services they thought were pre-paid.
The spate of recent travel companies hitting hard times and ceasing to trade has attracted the usual media frenzy and the concomitant horror stories of stranded passengers and those being presented with hotel bills for services they thought were pre-paid.
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| Laker Summer 1982 the programme that never took off |
However, this scenario is nothing new and has a long history. Even in relatively recent history there are major disaster stories to recall. Two decades or so ago, International Leisure Group (Air Europe and Intasun) ran into difficulties in March 1991. The March timing clearly caused less inconvenience as fewer passengers were actually on holiday at the time. A similar observation could be made about the Laker collapse over a decade earlier in February 1982, though this was more complicated as Laker had more 'long-haul' passengers in places such as Florida and New York thanks to the 'Skytrain' operation.
By the far biggest mid-summer season collapse of the post-World War II tourism boom was the Court Line Group in August 1974. This included probably the biggest tour operator of the early 1970s, Clarksons Holdays as well as several smaller companies including the highly respected (original) Horizon Holidays founded by Valdimir Raitz.
However, even pre-Clarksons, there were other disasters, Fiesta in the early 60s and other similar, but smaller operators that fell by the wayside. Such events led to much of the package holiday protection schemes put in the place through mechanisms devised by both ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) and the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority).
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| Henry Gaze publicity from 1879 |
However, it is possible to reach much further back in history for one of the biggest travel failures. As far back as 1903 in fact. Then a company that rivalled Thomas Cook in style and size was the subject of the collapse. Henry Gaze & Son had been around since the mid-1850s and built up a huge business with offices on at least three continents. Henry Gaze himself died in 1894 and the business passed through at least two ownerships prior to its eventual demise. Far too little is documented or known about this former travel giant and this blogger would be pleased to hear form anyone with information or interest in the subject.
Even Henry Gaze was not the first bankruptcy. Two decades earlier, about 1883, a former Thomas Cook manager who had set up his own rival operation was the unfortunate person. Obed Holt Caygill formed his own breakaway business from Thomas and John Mason Cook in the mid-1870s. Apparently successfully, at first, with an agency for the Great Northern Railway. He branched out into the newly developing Nile Cruise business, along with Cooks and Henry Gaze. By his evidence at his bankruptcy examination, reported by the Times in February 1885, a combination of dishonest clerks and an excess spending on advertising led to his downfall.
So travel bankruptcies, though distressing for those inconvenienced, are nothing new and contemporary travellers are, or should be, far better protected than those of a century or more ago.
