[michaelt]

One could imagine a travel company that operated like a financial services firm - if you pay $3000 for a package holiday they put your money in a ringfenced client money account and contract with an airline and hotel to provide the services with payment in arrears.

That way if the travel company or airline or hotel goes out of business, the holidaymaker hasn't lost any money (although they might face the cost of buying a last-minute flight from a different airline, or similar)

Of course, you could argue consumers who want such peace of mind can already approximate such an arrangement by combining a package holiday with travel insurance.