Bevan, chief executive B2B dnata Travel Europe, first revealed the strategy on stage at the Abta Travel Convention in Tokyo last month, following the collapse of Thomas Cook.

He said dnata had been hindered by not being able to immediately and directly reassure customers when Cook failed and called for a better industry strategy around data in a crisis situation.

Updating TTG on plans last week, Bevan said the brands would “imminently” start asking for customers’ mobile numbers and email addresses, stressing the technology behind its systems would ensure the data could not be accessed for other means, such as direct marketing.

“Those data fields will only be used for crisis management,” he said. “If we can get it in before peaks, then that’s even better.

“We’re even looking at holding that contact data for the duration of a customer’s travel and then deleting it or making it non-accessible after that period.”

Bevan added he believed it was up to operators to “prove themselves” to agents who “quite rightly” worry about their client’s data being used in the wrong way.