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Image: Thomas Cook collapses. Credit: Adweek.com

The collapse of the 178 year-old British travel operator, Thomas Cook, has had a big impact on Bali hotels. There are at least 16 hotels in Bali that would lose a billion Rupiah because of the immediate bankruptcy.

“We haven’t received a report as yet, but it is a difficult situation. The company had joint cooperation with 16 hotels in Bali,” said the Head of Bali Tourism Board, Ida Bagus Agung Partha Adnyana when he was contacted by detik.com on Wednesday evening.

Agung explained that Thomas Cook was ranked number three for travel agents bringing European tourists to Bali. He also said that the travel agent had a cooperation with 3 to 5 star hotels that are located on the beaches.

“Thomas Cook is the oldest travel agent globally and they have operated in Bali since the 1970s. They were ranked in the top three bringing European tourists to Bali,” he added.

Agung stated that European tourists would usually spend around USD 1,100 when they stayed for two weeks in Bali. He predicted that each of those 16 hotels would loss approx. Rp 1 billion. “We can assume that each hotel would loss around Rp 1 billion, and thus, the total would be around Rp 16 billion,” he explained. Agung said that the hotels will continue to serve the tourists who arrive and used the Thomas Cook services, but they will ask the tourists to pay upfront.

“This is one of the disadvantages of the offline services (and probably a part of why TC went belly up. Ed). If these services were done online, the tourists would pay directly to the hotels. If the travel agent isn’t in a good condition, and they collapse, we can’t do anything. Our position is not strong enough and we only depend on trust. That’s the weakness of offline services,” he concluded.