Social media was flooded with messages of condolence and support from the early hours of this morning (Monday 23 September) after news broke at 2am of the iconic travel brand’s failure after 178 years in business.

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Lisa McAuley, managing director B2B tour operations dnata Travel Europe, tweeted her recollections of running youth training scheme programmes for Cook at Norbreck Castle in Blackpool and hosting trips for top performing staff “across the globe”.

“So sad to see the demise of an iconic brand but more importantly deepest sympathy to all the lovely staff affected,” she posted.

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Reminiscing about his first job in travel – on Cook’s foreign exchange desk at Luton airport – was Travel Trade Consultancy director Simon Brodie, who wrote how “proud" he was to begin his career “with such an iconic brand”.

“Absolutely gutted for the loss of #ThomasCook... Very sad day for the industry. Thoughts to all the staff. CAA will do a great job bringing all passengers home,” he posted.

Gary Lewis, chief executive of The Travel Network Group, said it was “[Cook’s] people and our friends we are really thinking of today”.

“The failure has demonstrated again the remarkable resilience of our industry to deal with adversity, it underlines the importance of our financial protection models with the Atol scheme,” he said.

Lewis added he had “every confidence” the CAA would be prepared to handle the repatriation of Cook customers “as quickly and as efficiently as possible”.

“It is now the role of our membership to serve those customers that are due to travel and I know that they will do an equally amazing job of managing that as sensitively and professionally as they can.

“We have had our team in all over the weekend, helping members prepare for today, and we will continue to be available to support them. We have also set up a special support line for members to call.”

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Holidaysplease boss Richard Dixon called for industry unity around Cook’s collapse and praised its “fantastic staff” who have lost their jobs.

“Tough few days ahead for the industry to work through the fallout,” he tweeted. “Time to come together and shine.”

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Cherie Richards, Global Travel Group commercial director, took to Twitter to send “strength and courage” to affected staff across its head office; retail, airline and in-resort teams.

“Let’s support one another as we work our way through supporting our customers at this time #ThomasCook,” she added.

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Cook’s failure was described as “just tragic” by Celebrity Cruises’ managing director, UK, Ireland and Asia Pacific, Jo Rzymowska.

“My heart goes out to all the incredible staff @ThomasCookUK and globally,” she tweeted.

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Brian Young, managing director of G Adventures EMEA, added: “Such sad news to wake up to this morning. Thomas Cook was an iconic UK travel company and its people are amazing, they were passionate about their company, feeling for them all this morning.”