Hays Travel Limited is an independent travel agent chain headquartered in Sunderland,

England. It is currently the largest independent travel agent in the United Kingdom. As an
independent agent, Hays Travel uses other tour operators in the United Kingdom to provide
package holidays to customers.

A store of Hays Travel in the United Kingdom

Trade name Hays Travel Limited

Type Private

Industry Travel

Founded 1980; 39 years ago

Founder John Hays

Headquarters Sunderland

, 

England, UK

Number of 745 (including former Thomas Cook stores)

locations

Area served United Kingdom

Key people Irene Hays (Chairman)

John Hays (CEO)

Owner John Hays (49.99%)

Irene Hays (50.01%)

Website www.haystravel.co.uk

Thomas Cook Group plc was a British global travel group. It was formed on 19 June 2007 by the
merger of Thomas Cook AG (itself the successor to Thomas Cook & Son) and MyTravel Group
The company's slogan — "Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it!" — propelled the brand
to household-name status for budget leisure travel, even after struggling through World War
II and becoming state-owned and then privatized again in the late 1900s.
In 2001, Thomas Cook merged with one of Germany's largest travel groups and debuted
Thomas Cook Airlines in 2003.

The first Thomas Cook holiday was a 15-mile railway ride for
temperance movement supporters from Leicester to Loughborough

Thomas Cook was a Baptist missionary and cabinet-maker in

Leicester, England in the 19th century. He was a part of the
temperance movement and organized anti-liquor meetings in 1841.

The company almost went under in 2011 when its debt reached $1.24
billion.
However, in September 2019, attempts to secure $249 million failed,
and Thomas Cook declared bankruptcy Monday, September 23, 2019.

Thomas Cook's bankruptcy has left 600,000 people stranded at

airports and hotels around the world, sparking what Reuters called the
greatest peacetime repatriation effort in the UK. It has also left over
21,000 people jobless.

On 9 October 2019, independent travel agent Hays Travel announced that it had acquired all 555
former Thomas Cook travel agencies in the UK, and planned to re-employ a "significant number" of
former employees. Hays, which already operated 190 of their own stores, expected to retain over 25%
of the retail staff, saving roughly 2,500 jobs

2019 expansion
On 9 October 2019, Hays Travel announced that it had purchased all Thomas Cook Group stores in the
United Kingdom, which were all assumed to be closed due to the travel agency entering liquidation during
the previous month. The company took over the 550 retail locations across the United Kingdom; news
reports at the time indicated that Hays would almost treble the number of existing stores and doubling its
workforce.
By late November 2019, Hays stated that it would hire an extra 1,500 staff, in addition to its 2,330 who
previously worked for Thomas Cook. The total number of Hays Travel employees would total 5,700 people
after the planned hirings.