Sunny Heart Travel, an agency launched by former Thomas Cook staff following its collapse, has also failed.

A winding up order for the OTA, founded in October 2019, was granted on 2 July 2024 at a hearing at the Bristol District Registry.

The hearing took place as a result of an application on 15 April by the landlord of a Peterborough shopping centre where Sunny Heart Travel had opened a store in November 2022.

The agency’s customers had been alarmed when the shop closed without warning in March this year, but at the time Chief Executive Steve Bentzen said Sunny Heart was still trading online.

He told local media Sunny Heart had been forced to close the store due to a contractual dispute with the owner, Queensgate Peterborough Property Company, however, Sunny Heart’s website was later taken offline.

Sunny Heart was founded by Steve (pictured above, inset), who was a Programme Manager for Thomas Cook for a year prior to its collapse, and Jemma Sharman, who worked at Thomas Cook for more than five years, most recently as Project Business Analyst.

The pair had both left Thomas Cook in 2018, a year before its demise. They founded Sunny Heart Travel following Thomas Cook’s failure in September 2019, initially as an online travel agency. The name was a nod to Thomas Cook’s yellow heart logo.

Sunny Heart was operating as a member of Protected Trust Services when it began taking bookings in spring 2021, but a PTS spokesperson said it moved almost two years ago to Hays Travel. 

Hays told Travel Gossip: “Sunny Heart Travel is no longer a member of the Hays Travel Independence group. All forward bookings are fully protected and will be administered by Hays Travel.”

Travel Gossip has approached Steve for a comment.