Difficult start to the holidays for Neuchâtel travel agencies. A few days before the summer holidays, the Swiss subsidiary of the German tour operator FTI went bankrupt last week, a month after the parent company. The third largest provider of holiday packages in Europe had to cancel all its current services. Some Neuchâtel customers therefore saw their holidays pass them by. FTI may not mean anything to you, but travel agencies in the Jura Arc worked with them a lot. The German tour operator represented a large volume of sales, because its prices were often the best on the market. The agencies that worked with this chain therefore had to scramble to find similar holiday alternatives for their customers. The Neuchâtel and Jura Arc Travel Agencies Group, the “Gavnaj”, reassures. For most travellers, solutions could be found, says Nathalie Chuat, president of Gavnaj.
Gavnaj regrets FTI’s lack of transparency about its financial situation. The company did not hide the fact that it was in difficulty, but had assured that it could hold out until the end of 2024. “The announcement of the bankruptcy was a real surprise. We had even been confirmed by email the week before that the situation was under control,” says Nathalie Chuat. The disappearance of FTI from the “tour operator” market reduces the supply of travel packages. Particularly in the seaside sector. “This is bad news for consumers, FTI was often the cheapest tour operator,” laments Nathalie Chuat.
This bankruptcy of the German giant is evidence of the fragile health of tour operators. After the Covid years, when many trips had to be cancelled due to border closures, the sector had finally reached cruising speed again. “This is a new blow for our sector,” says Nathalie Chuat. “We hope that this will be the only tour operator in this case, otherwise we will no longer be able to really compare prices to offer the best to our customers.”
FTI was the third largest European tour operator and one of the most sought after by Neuchâtel tourism agencies after Kuoni and Hotelplan. /crb
