Tour operator Thomas Cook has announced that it has scrapped all trips to Tunisia until early next year on advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
Previously the travel firm had been taking bookings effective from October 31st this year, but the FCO has advised against all but essential travel to the North African state in the wake of the beach hotel slaughter in June that left 30 Britons dead and 26 others injured.
A spokesman for the company said the decision was made because “we have no clear indication as to when the FCO travel advice may change”.
He added that customers can cancel their holidays for free – or travel to another “winter sun” hotspot, such as the Canary Islands and Turkey. Bookings to Tunisia are not expected to recommence until February 2016 at the earliest.
The Thomas Cook group was sending up to 700,000 holidaymakers to Tunisia each year prior to the massacre perpetrated by university student Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, who was shot dead by police at the scene.
The gunman, thought to be operating on behalf of the so-called Islamic State, killed eight other people, including tourists from Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Russia. He was not known to be a potential threat by Tunisian authorities, according to Prime Minister Habib Essid, and reports that he was not acting alone have so far come to nothing.
