Shares in multiple travel stocks - including tour operators and airlines - took a nosedive following the terrorist attacks in Tunisia that left several British citizens dead. News of the attack broke on the afternoon of Friday 26 June and the death toll steadily rose over the course of the weekend. The British government also updated its advice on travelling to Tunisia, warning that copy-cat attacks were likely.
Shares in TUI AG (TUI) - the recently merged group which owns Thomson and First Choice - were worst hit, tumbling nearly 6 per cent in early trading. Thomas Cook (TCG) also fell nearly 5 per cent, while International Consolidated Airlines (IAG) - owner of British Airways and Spanish airline Iberia - dropped close to 3 per cent. Budget airline easyJet (EZJ) got off lightly with just a 1.6 per cent fall in the group's share price. EasyJet said it would allow those customers due to fly to Tunisia in the next two weeks to switch to a different destination. The tour companies arguably face the biggest task. By Monday, Thomas Cook said it had already evacuated more than 1,000 holidaymakers from the country, scrambling flights from different holiday firms to meet demand.
However, it's not just the prevalent terror threat that has sent travel stocks down. The same companies are exposed to events in Greece, a popular holiday destination among Britons at this time of year. Greece's debt crisis is worsening after talks collapsed on Friday 26 June, and Athens took the decision to implement capital controls. Just after 8:00am on Monday 29 June, the blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 1.6 per cent at 6,643.21 points. As it stands, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has announced a referendum for 5 July 2015 to decide whether the country should accept or reject the bailout agreement offered by creditors.
