Cox & Kings’ latest blow
Virtuoso confirmed it has cut ties with Cox & King as speculation mounts around the embattled travel group.
Cox & Kings, which was founded in 1758, once again defaulted on its payment obligation on for commercial papers last week, according to a BSE filing.
“The company is working closely with its lenders to optimise its asset base globally and bring the situation back to normal,” the filing said.
It was only hours before that Cox & Kings decided to shut down its Australian and New Zealand operations, taking with it Tempo Holidays and Bentours, and prompting support from other travel companies to affected agents and their clients.
In the latest blow to the company, Virtuoso confirmed it has terminated its preferred partnerships with Cox & Kings, The Americas and Cox & Kings Tours LLC, Dubai effective September 20, 2019.
“As part of Virtuoso’s contract compliance process, Virtuoso asked both companies to provide us with financial assurances,” Albert Herrera, Virtuoso’s senior vice president of global product and partnerships told Travel Weekly.
“However, with continued negative financial reports from their India operations, our members began to lose confidence, which resulted in their termination.
“We have shared the news with our membership and recommend that members reconfirm reservations if they have bookings with either company and contact the individual hotels being used in the tours to confirm details.”
Cox & Kings’ troubles came at the same time as one of the world’s biggest and longest-standing travel companies, Thomas Cook, collapsed earlier this week leaving an estimated 600,000 travellers stranded.
Travel Weekly has reached out to Cox & Kings for comment.
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