Aussie Travel Giant Collapses, Leaving Nearly 100 Malaysian Dream Vacations in Limbo

• Australians stuck and financially affected for their ideal vacation
• EXPLORE FURTHER: Construction firm in Melbourne goes bankrupt with debts of $2.3 million

Many Australian families have lost substantial amounts, seen their ideal vacations destroyed, and even left stranded overseas following the collapse of a significant travel firm.

The online travel company Traveldream entered administration and stopped operations on April 28. This led to customers' flights, accommodations, cruise reservations, and tours being cancelled unexpectedly.

A mother and her two daughters lost $33,000 while a group of travellers, currently overseas, found there was no booking under their name after arriving at a hotel.

Donna Lamberth and her husband lost $15,500 from the fall-out of the collapse.

The couple saved for two years to go on the trip, which started in Vancouver, followed by a cruise from Alaska before they finished in Las Vegas . In December, they managed to pay for everything related to the trip.

"I'll need to save once more. That's quite a sum to part with," she said. news.com.au .

When Ms Lamberth contacted the cruise company, she received the shocking information that merely $250 had been paid as a booking advance for the trip.

"They mentioned that there was still $7,000 left to be paid. I started crying," she stated.

The Lamberths had to cancel their holiday because they couldn't afford to pay for the accommodation and the cruise again.

Michelle Brown, along with her husband and friends, arrived in Vancouver last Friday after spending 21 hours flying from Australia.

Ms Brown recounted to news.com.au, “We arrive there at whatever time of night, but they said ‘we’re sorry, we don’t have a reservation.’”

According to Bill Karageozis from the insolvency firm McLeods, she was among at least 75 individuals affected by this collapse.

Mr Karageoziz stated that the firm's liabilities would probably not go beyond $1 million, and he mentioned that the business had no accessible physical assets.

The administrator motivated clients to attempt discovering who their travel 'wholesaler' was—the firm that the travel agency paid for securing these services.

The list provided to customers included contacts for various service providers such as Royal Caribbean Cruises, Holland America Cruises, Qantas, Air Canada, United Airlines, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines, WestJet, and Canada Rockeries KeyWest Tours.

Christopher Banson serves as the exclusive director of Australian Travel Deals Pty Ltd, operating under the brand Traveldream. The company has been active since 2016.

He is also in charge of Salt Water Hotels and Resorts, which operates 30 locations across Australia and remained untouched by the collapse of Traveldream.

A fellow shareholder, Travel Dream Australia Pty Ltd, reportedly owes Traveldream $49,000 as stated by the administrators.

The company is led by Paul Mercuri, who co-founded Traveldream but had stepped away from the business before it went under.

Traveldream and McLeods were reached out to by Daily Mail Australia for their comments.

Read more