The liquidation of Thomas Cook is a disaster for 150,000 holidaymakers and the travel agent’s 22,000 staff including 9,000 in the UK.

But it also intensifies concerns about the health of the high street, where 178-year-old Thomas Cook operated 544 branches.

The most immediate question is to what extent such a large number of closures, as looks likely at present, will be a blow for high streets already hit by the administrations of other well-known names.

Local Data Company (LDC) data shows Thomas Cook’s high street portfolio, the bulk of its estate and comprising 312 locations, lags the UK average score on its Health Index, based on factors such as catchment size, spending power and vacancy rates.

RegionNumber of units% of total stores
North West 95 17.5%
South East 78 14.3%
Scotland 56 10.3%
East Midlands 53 9.7%
Yorkshire and the Humber 53 9.7%
East of England 52 9.6%
West Midlands 46 8.5%
South West 38 7.0%
Wales 29 5.3%
North East 25 4.6%
Greater London 19 3.5%
Total 544  

LDC head of retail and strategic partnerships Lucy Stainton says: “As over half of Thomas Cook’s stores are located on our high streets, the impact of these closures across this location type is likely to be significant.

“The region with the largest number of Thomas Cook stores is the North West, with Manchester alone having 11 sites which will all have to close.

“Equally, city-centre locations will be hardest hit with Glasgow, Nottingham and Liverpool also having multiple sites which will need to find a new tenant. Many of these larger city centres have already been hit by CVAs announced over the past 18 months and this news will only add to the malaise felt across the sector.”

Former Game chief executive and author of Reinventing Retail Ian Shepherd says: “It is very bad news for the high street to lose another tranche of stores. High streets are integrated places and vacancies can create vacancies – it’s like a spreading infection.”

Thomas Cook’s collapse may prompt questions about the future of travel agents more widely, which will matter to retailers who have partnerships with them.

According to the LDC data, there were nine Thomas Cook concessions with the Co-op, five with Sainsbury’s and four in Asda stores.

Shepherd says: “In a world in which we discover hotels and flights and places to go, is there any role for high street travel agents?

“We talk a lot about experiential retail and advice. There could have been opportunity there and maybe there still is for a travel advisory service to emerge with a different model.”

Retail consultant Canny Insights’ Graham Soult says the demise of Thomas Cook is not good news for the high street but reflects particular problems at that business. He says Thomas Cook’s £60m purchase of its share of a joint venture with the Co-op in 2016 looks “unwise” in retrospect, given the dynamics of the high street.

But he points to the success of North East-based travel agent Hays, which earlier this year passed the £1bn sales barrier. He says: “People have perhaps moved away from big, homogenous companies but more interesting and diverse ones seem to be doing well.”

Thomas Cook suffered, like many retailers from factors ranging from debt, the weakness of sterling and the weather. But like many retailers, its business model became outdated as consumer behaviour changed.

While its online business was growing and accounted for 50% of sales at the time of its last results, it was also a victim of disintermediation. Increasingly, consumers buy the elements of their holiday separately, taking advantage of everything from the rise of budget airlines to accommodation services such as Airbnb.

Civil Aviation Authority chair Dame Deirdre Hutton told the BBC: “Thomas Cook is operating on brochures, whereas the world has moved on to barcodes.”

Shepherd says: “The lesson in consumer psychology that Thomas Cook teaches us is that consumers want a personalised and customised experience.

“That has very profound implications for lots of businesses on the high street where, despite the emergence of AI and other technology, I can only buy products in small, medium or large.

“Increasingly, customers are going to look for product designed for themselves.”

The crash of Thomas Cook raises long-term questions about business models, but in the short term may leave some high streets gap-toothed.