Between the significant changes in how travelers book trips and consumers who are watching discretionary spending more carefully, it is proving to be a particularly tough time to run a travel agency.
Travel companies that collapsed in bankruptcy over the last year include British firms Great Little Escapes and Jetline, Swedish travel company MixxTravel and French cruise operator Expedis Exploration.
Icelandic tour company Tango Travel, which tied many of its packages to tickets on the low-cost airline Play, was also left incapacitated when the latter shut down abruptly in September 2025. In each case, similar problems around not being able to bring in enough travelers to cover rising expenses plagued travel agencies that in some cases were established decades ago to the bitter end.
British travel company Gold Crest Holidays crashed after 30 years
This week, new details around the financial position of bus tour company Gold Crest Holidays were made public by the British government. Established in the town of Ilkley in West Yorkshire in the 1990s, the travel agency had been selling Brits holiday bus tours to Paris and Disney Paris as well as other cities in France, Germany and Austria for more than 30 years.
Citing the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the heavy debt burden that it was unable to climb out of, Gold Crest Holidays entered liquidation in January 2026.
Related: 30-year-old travel company goes into liquidation, all trips canceled
New details made public by the Companies House branch of the British government responsible for incorporating and dissolving registered companies show that Gold Crest Holidays had approximately £156,000 in assets that could be put toward debts owed to creditors.
The total debts, meanwhile, included a total £927,000 owed to 63 creditors including Barclays Security Trustee and Barclays Bank and the Association of British Travel Agents as well as dozens of small travel agencies with which the travel firm collaborated.
After liquidation proceedings redistributed assets and cleared certain debts, the company still owes approximately £425,000 in various liabilities. When converted to USD for comparison, Gold Crest Holidays owed approximately $1.24 million at the time it was forced to enter insolvency and liquidation.
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“We are truly sorry we can no longer continue”: Collapse of local travel firm hits local community
A local community staple in West Yorkshire, Gold Crest Holidays had long-running relationships with local families that came to them to book travel year after year.
In a statement on its closure, company owners said that they are “immensely grateful to our loyal customers, travel agents, suppliers, and dedicated staff for your support over the years” and are “truly sorry we can no longer continue.”
Travel companies that recently went bankrupt:
- Great Little Escapes: The British travel company filed for bankruptcy after running up losses of £77,000 ($103,000 USD).
- Unitravel Kft: The Budapest-based tour operator blamed “new, foreign companies enter[ing] Hungary with huge financial resources” for a financial breakdown that led to it having to suddenly cancel trips that in some cases were already halfway through.
- MixxTravel: The Malmö-based travel company was forced to cancel trips and wind down operations after being declared bankrupt by a judge in August 2025.
- Tango Travel: The Icelandic tour operator went bust in November 2025 after major partner Play Airlines filed for bankruptcy and stopped operations a month earlier.
- New Era Travel: Also ceased operations in November 2025. The Hampshire-based tour operator took British travelers to Spain, Australia, and Las Vegas, among other destinations on multiple continents.
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All trips for 2026 had been canceled in January 2026 while affected travelers have been asked to request refunds through regulators and the Association of British Travel Agents.
Related: Another travel company files for bankruptcy, cancels all trips