Around 300 people were booked to travel but the tour operator had no-one abroad at the time.

Andy Cohen, head of Atol, said: “At one of the busiest periods for booking holidays, the collapse of Elixir Holidays is a timely reminder of why holidaymakers should make sure their trip is Atol protected and that they receive an Atol certificate, as soon as they’ve booked their trips.”

The collapse of Elixir Holidays follows a difficult period for Turkish tourism.

Both Thomas Cook and Tui have cut capacity to the destination and earlier this week Mark Warner announced it would not be offering holidays to the Sea Garden Beach Resort in Bodrum.

The lack of demand for the destination has been fuelled by a recent spate of terrorist attacks.

At least 28 people were killed in a bomb blast in the capital Ankara on Wednesday.

Earlier this year a number of German tourists we killed in an attack in Istanbul.