October 7 (SeeNews) - Astral Holidays International, an official representative of collapsed UK-based global travel group Thomas Cook in Bulgaria, said that it has filed for bankruptcy starting from October 7.
Astral Holidays will compensate its customers through an insurance contract with Uniqa Bulgaria worth 700,000 levs ($393,500/357,900 euro), the travel agency said in a statement.
The company also said it will be unable to implement future travels of part of its customers after October 7.
Bulgaria's tourism minister Nikolina Angelkova has scheduled a meeting with representatives of Astral Holidays and Uniqa on Monday, the tourism ministry said in a statement.
Thomas Cook announced it has gone bankrupt on September 23.
Bulgaria's tourism and hospitality sector will "lose millions" as a consequence of the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook, which worked with over 50 hotels in the country, the tourism ministry said at the time.
The losses of Bulgarian hoteliers will amount to 36 million euro ($39.6 million) after the travel giant's collapse, local news outlet Investor.bg at the end of September citing industry officials.
Astral Holidays International has been operating on the Bulgarian market for the past 24 years.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)