Holidays for 20 thousand in Doubt As Golden Sun Go Bust

30 November -0001

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About 20,000 prospective holidaymakers are stuck with no holiday after their travel agent, Golden Sun, went bust.

More than 10,000 holidaymakers could be stranded abroad until they can make alternative arrangements to get home.

Golden Sun currently has 10,500 customers on holiday in Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and Croatia.

The 20,000 customers with forward bookings should get their money back from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) paid out of an industry insurance fund.

About 2,500 travellers were due to fly out this weekend alone.

The CAA, with the help of its Consumer Protection Group, hopes people will be flown home as normal with flights paid for out of the fund.

A CAA spokesman described the failure of the medium-sized travel company as the biggest "for some time".

Golden Sun has been struggling to meet its liabilities, say the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) which started to get complaints from hotels that had not been paid by Golden Sun over a year ago.

However one holidaymaker stranded in Greece said that he cannot leave his hotel because the bill has not yet been paid by Golden Sun, and with new guests arriving, that are having to pay for the hotel again out of their spending money to get accommodation.

For those about to go on holiday, a refund may be less than sufficient compensation.

It will take a few weeks to get a refund after filling in a form on the CAA website, said Abta.

Holidaymakers using a company which is an Abta member and who book using a credit card are usually well protected with bonds held by Air Travel Organisers' Licensing give protection from losing money or being stranded to the 30 million people who travel with tour operators from Britain each year. Shortfalls are made up through the Air Travel Trust Fund.

All tour operators selling flights and holidays involving flying must hold a licence from the CAA. Source bbc

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