Purpose: Financial bankruptcy is inevitable in the tourism and hospitality ecosystem. Despite the pertinence of tourism and hospitality businesses going into bankruptcy, limited studies have investigated the early warning signs and likelihood of a financial bankruptcy occurring in tourism and hospitality firms. This study examined the predictive value of financial ratios as potential indicators in predicting bankruptcy among tourism and hospitality firms.Design/methodology/approach: Altman's z-score bankruptcy prediction model was applied through five key financial ratios to predict bankruptcy of the Thomas Cook Travel Group over a ten year period (2008–2018).Findings: The key findings of this study strongly suggest that besides the size and location of the firm, financial ratios are reliable predictors and play a pivotal role in predicting the bankruptcy of a tourism and hospitality business.Practical implications: The paper provides key stakeholders to adopt checks and balances to identify financial distressed tourism firms through financial ratios.Originality/value: This is the first academic paper to inspect the financial history of Thomas Cook Travel Group in a financial ratio context, particularly following the bankruptcy of the firm in 2019.

The authors examine how stock returns were affected when the oil price reached the psychological barrier of US$100 per barrel for the first time in history. Using an event study approach, 4 key results emerge. First, the authors show that a psychological barrier event in the oil market does affect stock returns. Second, they show that a psychological barrier event in the oil market is a source of return drift—a phenomenon well explained and understood with respect to nonoil news events. Third, the psychological barrier affects small/medium-sized stocks and not large stocks. Last, the authors show that successful trading strategies can be devised based on the information that the oil price psychological barrier significantly impacts the market and that it contributes to return drift.