Travel agencies are succesful because most people don't like to plan their travels. They just go to the travel bureau and pick a trip. The agency takes care of the rest. These agencies claim they can get you the best price for the trip - but is that actually true? I wouldn't know.
In our family, we've never been to a travel agency. When we make a trip, it's all self-arranged. When we were kids, our dad took care of the planning. Together with his best friend he arranged train journeys and booked hotels (mostly in Europe). When I was in my twenties and spoke German rather fluently, I was asked to make phone calls to hotels in Switzerland or Austria to book rooms (not only for us, but for a whole group of friends). That way I got into planning. When my sister was older, she also took her pleasure in it.
For us, planning is half of the pleasure of travelling. In the old days, we had to write letters and use the phone to make international calls. Nowadays we have the internet, which is a blessing. We are rather faithful to one brand of hotels, but when there is no hotel of theirs in the place we want to be, I check Booking.com to see which hotels get good comments. I don't book through Booking.com though, don't trust them. Always go directly via the hotel website. And plane tickets can be cheap enough if you book in advance and on certain days.
So no problems for us. I pity all those people who now see their vacation plans cancelled. I suspect also Brussels Airlines will feel the bankrupcy of Thomas Cook, as they carried a lot of their passengers. Btw, that was already a first sign that things weren't going well, when Thomas Cook sold all their Belgian fleet to Brussels Airlines...
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