Gareth Simpson, who joined Cook as a rep in 2002 and was posted to Salou, launched jobs4thomascook.com on Tuesday (24 September), less than 24 hours after the operator entered liquidation.

Some 22,000 staff group-wide have been left without a job, around 9,000 of whom were by Cook in the UK across its retail operation, at its head office in Peterborough and at Manchester-based Thomas Cook Airlines.

“I spent nine or 10 years working for Thomas Cook overseas and in UK retail,” said Simpson.

“Yesterday [Monday] was a sad day for my TC family. There is a lot of amazing talent out there looking for a job. Let’s put out TC family before profit, competition and anything else.”

Simpson, who runs the Stories of a Holiday Rep Facebook page – which now has more than 17,000 members – with Sam Lupson, told TTG he had been inspired by “all the support” from the industry for Cook’s airline, retail and head office staff on social media.

“All the offers of interviews and jobs were literally all over the place though,” he said. “So we decided to create a simple ‘job board’-style website so agencies, suppliers and other tour operators could post their vacancies for free, and all the ex-Cook staff would know where to look.”

Dozens of businesses have come forward with vacancies over the past 24 hours, from homeworking agencies like Holidaysplease offering groups of Cook staff office space to keep their teams together, to Tui which is promising to host a jobs fair for former Cook employees.

Simpson completed two summers with Cook in Salou before moving on to working summers and winters in Benidorm, Majorca and on the Costa del Sol as a rep, and later head rep.

He went on to work a winter season in resort admin before taking up a role as an airport supervisor.

After a spell away from the business, he rejoined Cook and moved into its retail division, working in Oldham and Manchester’s Trafford Centre before embarking on a career in the recruitment sector.

Simpson said businesses were invited to post relevant vacancies on the website at jobs4thomascook.com