A growing number of UK travellers are choosing to be covered by the Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (Atol) scheme, according to new research by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Atol now includes more than 2,500 travel firms in its plan of shielding customers from any losses if a tour operator or airline goes out of business.
It also protects tourists from being stuck in a foreign country if these companies go bankrupt while travellers are on their holidays.
A total of 26.3 million UK tourists used the protection scheme in the full calendar year up to September 2006.
Under the scheme, travel firms have to put down a bond under Atol to be recognised as part of it, which is used to complete the payouts.
"The figures reflect a range of capacity changes by tour operators in response to the market, as well as some business consolidation and capacity transfers," said David Mosley, deputy director of the CAA's consumer protection group to website justtheflight.co.uk.
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