Is Tour Operator Cox & Kings the Next to Fall?
Photo Credit: The Meininger St Petersburg. There seems to be no takers for the Cox and Kings-owned hotel chain. Meininger
Skift Take
Debt-addled Cox & Kings appears to be teetering on the brink of collapse. It has closed its Australia/New Zealand operations. Virtuoso has severed ties with it — and a rescue does not look imminent.
Concerns are mounting over whether Cox & Kings is next on the chopping block following Thomas Cook Group’s demise earlier this week.
The India-based tour operator shuttered its Australian/New Zealand operations last week and received a vote of no confidence from Virtuoso after it cut ties to Cox & Kings in the U.S. and Dubai citing “continuing financial problems with the operator’s affiliate in India.”
The Australian/New Zealand business — Tempo Holidays and Bentours — announced on September 19 that it was closing following advice from parent Cox & Kings India that its negotiations with “investors/buyers with heavy interest” had failed to materialize.
Tempo and Bentours had been wholesalers within Australia and New Zealand for more than 30 years. Tempo prided itself as “tailor-made specialists” offering a huge range of hotels, villas, walking/cycling holidays, coach tours, and cruises, while Bentours specialized in tours to Scandinavia, Nordics,
