People walk past a closed Thomas Cook travel shop in London, Monday, Sept. 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Thomas Cook has ceased trading, its four airlines will be grounded, and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries, including 9,000 in the U.K., will lose their jobs. The company several months ago had blamed a slowdown in bookings because of Brexit uncertainty for contributing to its crushing debt burden. There has also been a downward trend in using brick and mortar travel agents as more onlines options have become available.

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British vacationer told BBC radio on Sunday that the Les Orangers beach resort in the Tunisian town of Hammamet, near Tunis, demanded that guests who were about to leave pay extra money, for fear it wouldn’t be paid what it is owed by Thomas Cook.

Ryan Farmer said many tourists refused the demand, since they had already paid Thomas Cook, so security guards shut the hotel’s gates and “were not allowing anyone to leave.”

It was like “being held hostage,” said Farmer, who is due to leave Tuesday. He said he would also refuse to pay if the hotel asked him

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https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/tour-company-thomas-cook-collapses-150-000-people-stranded-1.4605430