Major package holiday operators have cancelled all of their summer holidays to Tunisia. Previously, Thomson and Thomas Cook were selling cheap holidays to resorts across the country, including hotels near to Sousse, where 38 tourists were shot dead last summer.
Last week, Thomson cancelled ‘further outbound flights’ until the 31st October. Currently, Tunisia is in an official state of emergency which is expected to last until at least February 21. 33 of the victims of the terror attack were customers of either Thomson or it’s sister company, First Choice, who have also cancelled all of their upcoming Tunisia trips. Thomas Cook have followed their lead, cancelling all bookings up to and including the 31st October. If you attempt to book online for a 2016 trip, you are met with an error message.
Thomas Cook said that they appreciated cancellation of Tunisia holidays may be ‘frustrating’ for customers, but said that the company is doing its best to ensure that they are still able to enjoy a Thomas Cook holiday by offering them options. They are:
- If you are due to travel up to and including 31st October 2016, you can cancel or amend your holiday free of charge.
- If you wish to re-book an alternative holiday, you will just pay the difference in price.
- If you book a new holiday departing before 31st October, you’ll get a £30 per person discount regardless of whether it is cheaper or more expensive than the original holiday.
Thomas Cook said they will be contacting customers individually, starting with people whose bookings are soonest. The decision to cancel has been made because there is no way to tell when the Foreign Office will lift their travel restrictions.
Sales of holidays were previously allowed to go ahead, despite the Foreign Office’s warning to avoid the area for all but ‘essential travel’ as further terrorist attacks are still ‘highly likely’. One customer paid £1,300 for a two week all inclusive holiday to Tunisia for May 2016, but said he was kept waiting to see whether his holiday would be cancelled. He said he was ‘annoyed’ that Thomas Cook allowed him to book his holiday to Tunisia without any indication of the Foreign Office travel warnings. He has now booked a trip to Majorca with another company after receiving a refund.
Thomas Cook has an alert page regarding Tunisia, with pop ups to warn of the travel restrictions during the booking process. However, when Holiday Numbers attempted to book a trip to Tunisia for November 1st, there were no warnings at all.
Thomson said in a statement that they apologised for any ‘inconvenience’ caused by the Foreign Office’s advice.
