Thomas Cook (Collapse)

Thomas Cook's 2019 collapse ended 178 years of travel history and stranded 600,000 tourists worldwide. The company couldn't adapt to online booking, carrying £1.7 billion in debt from a 2007 merger while competing against asset-light OTAs. Like a large organism that can't evolve fast enough as its environment transforms, Thomas Cook's physical infrastructure became a liability when customers shifted to digital booking.