The COVID-19 pandemic led to mass cancellations of travel bookings. Besides the loss of revenues, organisers were particularly hit by refund requests significantly exceeding the level of new bookings.

Considering the critical cash-flow situation of tourism businesses, some Member States, such as Denmark, adopted specific State aid measures to support package travel organisers and set up guarantee schemes for vouchers to ensure that, in the event of insolvency of the organiser, travellers are reimbursed, as recommended by the Commission in its Recommendation 2020/648.

Under the State aid Temporary Framework to support the economy in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, Denmark adopted a €200 million loan in support of the Travel Guarantee Fund for travel cancellations due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The objectives of this measure were:
•    To ensure that sufficient liquidity remained available for travel organisers to counter the damage inflicted in the package travel market
•    To preserve the continuity of economic activity during and after the coronavirus outbreak
•    To ensure the quickest possible settlement of related refunds or reimbursements to travellers

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