Some 7,000 people were effectively stranded in their holiday location on Wednesday evening after travel company Oad went bust.

Oad, one of the biggest travel firms in the Netherlands, was declared bankrupt on Wednesday afternoon, with the loss of 1,450 jobs. The company shed 170 jobs in March as part of a reorganisation.

It is not yet clear how the holidaymakers will be brought back to the Netherlands. People who have booked breaks with Oad will either get their money back or a replacement holiday.

‘We are losing one of the sector’s biggest players,’ Frank Oostdam, chairman of the Dutch tour operator organisation ANVR told news agency ANP.

The company was founded in 1924 and offered bus holidays. It is still a family-owned firm. Oad also takes care of transporting Dutch football supporters to international matches abroad. ANP said.