With the bankruptcy of the FTI group, customers, hoteliers and employees are worried about their money. Under bankruptcy law, a certain order of priority will be followed until all creditors and those with a legal interest are satisfied.

However, many hotels, including Greek ones, “had asked for advances this year due to the problems faced by FTI, which they received”, points out the economic review Handelsblatt. “In the industry, therefore, there is no possibility of monetary claims against customers. And according to the Greek Ministry of Tourism, no vacationer will be forced to interrupt his stay. As reported by the Greek media, the hoteliers have decided to organize the transport of FTI customers to the airports after the end of their holidays and to bear the costs”.

There are currently “around 7,500 vacationers who booked their trip through FTI – 5,000 of them in Crete” in Greece. FTI’s total bookings for Greece in 2024 reached 220,000. “However, FTI still owes some Greek hotels amounts from 2023.” In total, the debt reportedly reaches 1.8 million euros to 300 hotels.

Great concern in Turkey as well

There is also great concern in Turkey, for which approximately one million Germans had booked a trip through FTI in 2023. As experts also state in Handelsblatt, “FTI’s bankruptcy damages Turkey at a time when the country is anyway otherwise in an economic crisis”. And of course “not only hotels are affected, but also tourist offices, tour guides, restaurants”. Insecurity is great.

FTI “tried to reassure the hoteliers. In a letter to a Greek hotelier, which is available to Handelsblatt, FTI explained that the costs for all holiday packages booked by tourists through FTI, 5vorFlug or BigXtra will be covered by the German Travel Insurance Fund.