(Adds Thomas Cook tweet)
TUNIS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - British tourists in Tunisia said
their hotel stopped them leaving for several hours on Saturday
night over concerns about payment by their holiday operator
Thomas Cook, though the Tunisian government said the incident
was a misunderstanding.
Gary Seale, a guest at the Orangers Hotel in Hammamet,
posted on Facebook at 9.39pm: "security have refused to let us
out of the hotel and barricaded us in". He later posted that he
reached the airport later on Saturday and flew home on Sunday.
The incident came amid growing concerns raised by some
customers of Thomas Cook, as the company's bosses met lenders
and creditors in London in a last-ditch attempt to raise 200
million pounds ($250 million) to keep it afloat.
The British government has said it has plans in place to
bring home stranded holidaymakers if Thomas Cook - the
world's oldest travel company - goes out of business.
Thomas Cook itself was not immediately available to comment,
but it has been using its social media channels to reassure
customers that the company is still operating as normal.
The company said https://bit.ly/2moNGOB on Twitter on Sunday
it would refund customers who paid on their credit cards for
their hotel before leaving Tunisia and would not be sending any
new arrivals to Les Orangers, Tunsia.
Tunisia's Tourism Ministry on Sunday attributed the incident
to a "misunderstanding" and said the tourists had been able to
leave on the flight on which were originally booked.
"Fourteen tourists were asked to wait a few minutes to
confirm with the representative of Thomas Cook... and quickly
got the agreement, and the tourists left and travelled on time
last night," the ministry said in a statement.
Tourism, a critical sector for Tunisia's economy, was hit
hard in 2015 by two militant attacks that killed scores of
people, with tourist numbers only recovering this year according
to the government.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall, additional
reporting by Kate Holton and Sathvik N from Bengaluru; Editing
by Andrew Heavens and David Evans)
