Travel is not the easiest industry in which to run a business in 2026.
Along with the high price of jet fuel hitting many smaller airlines, various travel agencies and other companies selling trips or organized tours are particularly affected by an economy in which many customers are either booking trips themselves or putting them off entirely.
The string of shutdowns has been particularly prominent in the United Kingdom. Companies that went bust over the last six months include British firms Salamander Voyages, Travel Bespoke, Regan Central and Jetline as well as Oxfordshire-registered cruise agency Set Sail Cruises.
Groupia travel agency enters administration and cancels all trips
The latest collapse first reported by the local press is that of Bath-based travel agency Groupia Ltd. Established in the ceremonial county of Somerset in 2002, Groupia sold group trips including stag and hen (the British term for bachelor and bachelorette) trips, sports tours and corporate spa and golf weekends.
The company also operated under names like Groupia Golf, GoHen, StagWeb, Groupia School Trips, and Company Away Days and marketed itself as an agency offering “the best” travel both domestically in the UK and to popular European holiday destinations like Split in Croatia and Prague in Czechia.
Related: Another luxury travel company declares bankruptcy, cancels all trips
The Groupia website now opens to a page saying that the company “entered administration on 16 June 2026” and has “ceased taking new bookings” for trips.
Administration is the British equivalent closest to Chapter 11 bankruptcy but without the opportunity to independently restructure; Nigel Fox and Christopher Marsden of S&W Partners LLP have been appointed as the joint administrators overseeing the insolvency process.
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What to do if you booked travel with Groupia, how to get a refund
Through its insurance with travel protection company ABTOT, any trips scheduled to take off before August 31, 2026 are expected to go on as planned while travelers who booked trips beyond that date will need to go through ABTOT to receive compensation.
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The options are to either go through one’s credit card issuer (often the fastest option) or file for compensation through ABTOT portal.
According to numbers published by Groupia in the past, over 750,000 customers in southwestern England has used its company to book trips over the years.
Some other recent travel agency bankruptcies in 2026:
- AVG Travels: The Melbourne-based travel agency selling cheap vacation packages to travelers in Australia and New Zealand sent more than 200 travelers an email saying that the trips were canceled before entering bankruptcy in May 2026.
- GoPlay Sports: In April 2026, the men’s basketball team of the University of Dallas was left without a planned trip to compete in the United Kingdom after Boston-based GoPlay Sports Tours LLC accepted two payments of $30,000 and then went unreachable.
- Havantur: Havantur was forced to shut down its main European office in France at the start of 2026 after tourist numbers to the Caribbean country plummeted due to U.S. military actions in Venezuela and threats against the country.
- Vegas Vacations and North America Destinations: Two travel agencies in the Canadian province of British Columbia, Vegas Vacations and North America Destinations, were shut down by regulators within a few days of each other in January 2026 after multiple travelers complained of buying trips with invalid plane tickets and hotel bookings.
Related: 15-year-old travel company ends in bankruptcy, cancels all trips
