By AFP

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Booking a vacation used to mean selecting a package holiday from the catalogue of a big tour operators.

With the advent of the internet consumers now have more options, a luxury that big travel operators have found difficult adapting to as the collapse of Thomas Cook shows.

A departure in the middle of the week, leaving from one airport and returning to another, extending a business trip into a mini-vacation, these are now common practices.

Thanks to being able to book airline tickets online and apps that offer a plethora of lodging options like Airbnb and Booking.com.

The emergence of these firms means that consumers can, and are, bypassing travel agents and tour operators.

"The younger generation are organising their travel for themselves more and more and the people who travel in a more classical way are also searching for a more personalised experience," said Jean-Pierre Mas, head of the trade association for French travel agencies.

"We need to offer some flexibility," he added.

Some industry giants like 178-year old Thomas Cook couldn't adjust to the "shift towards a tourism more about identity and affinity," said Didier Arino, head of the Protourisme consultancy.

The travel agencies that are still in the game understood the need to specialise, he added.

"Thomas Cook failed because it didn't move with the times," said Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson, citing its inability to embrace the web.

Surprise wedding in doubt

The collapse of Thomas Cook has left millions of travellers stranded across the world.

Britain started repartriation of an estimated 150,000 travellers on Monday with the first batch of about 15,000 arriving in London on Tuesday.

Europe is facing a more daunting predicament with more than 600,000 of its nationals at various destinations across the world.

Spare a thought for Thomas Cook who the company promised a surprise wedding by dint of sharing the company's name.

He flew out with his love Amelia Binch to Rhodes, Greece on Wednesday September 18 last week in preparation for the ceremony on Friday September 27.

Now the lavish wedding might not go ahead as the company was sponsoring the entire package including the travel of the best couple, their two children and other guests.

Unlike the couple which has been caught up in unforeseen situation, Thomas Cook cannot say the warning signs were not there.

"The real structural problem for them -- and this is probably the biggest management failure - is the fact that since the early days it didn't foresee that the internet was going to be such a strong and dominant force and it did not invest enough in that," said investment research analyst Helal Miah at The Share Centre.

"It still had a huge high street portfolio which is very costly and it's seen other players leap in front in the online market and take market share."

TUI in focus

Market players are now keeping a close eye on another giant in the sector, TUI, which is also facing difficulties, in particular due the fact that its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft has been grounded.

Investors piled into TUI's shares on Monday however as the collapse of a rival was seen as a boost to the chances of remaining firms.

But the big firms "have an obsolete model of vertical integration that is very heavy and which doesn't respond to today's need to be agile," said Mas.

The ability to react quickly and adapt has been very important in recent years as unforeseen developments have prompted consumers to rapidly shift destinations.

"When the Arab Spring took place in Tunisia one had to react in a week and orient clients towards other destinations, find hotels," said Mas.

But when you have to manage massive numbers of travellers that is a harder trick to pull off.

"The tourism sector suffered different crises that weakened operators," said consultant Arino.

Sector in flux

Beyond the economic crisis a decade ago which dented demand for travel, health scares and political events prompted swings between destinations.

"The sector has come under many pressures associated with very slim profit margins for each travel product sold," said travel and tourism expert Neil Robinson at the University of Salford Business School, adding there may also be "too many players in an already saturated market."

With its extensive network of travel agencies Thomas Cook had higher costs than online rivals who had less overheads and staff costs.

"Competition has been operating at a time when the european economy has been a bit slow," said Russ Mould, analyst at stockbroker AJ Bell.

And in the case of Thomas Cook, Brexit also played a role.

Uncertainty about when Britain will exit the European Union and on what terms has encouraged some British nationals to put off travel, while the weaker pound has made foreign travel more expensive.