Qantas asked to help Thomas Cook customers

Australia's national carrier has been asked to help repatriate travellers stranded following the collapse of UK travel company Thomas Cook.

"We have been approached for support and we're assessing what help we may be able to provide," a Qantas spokesman told AAP on Tuesday.

Anyone who has booked through Thomas Cook to come to Australia will be refunded.

Australia's foreign affairs department is encouraging people affected by the fallout to visit the company's website or contact the UK's civil aviation authority.

But the Tourism and Transport Forum expects the impact on Australia and Australians to be minimal.

"I think the important thing is that there is no real impact on Australian travellers as Thomas Cook has not operated here since 2000," TTF chief executive Margy Osmond told AAP.

"I think, however, there will be some secondary and quite savage impacts on different markets around the world where both small and large business rely on this British package market."

Ms Osmond said the structure of Australian travel agents was also quite different to Thomas Cook.

"That means the likelihood of something like the collapse happening here in Australia is quite remote," she said.

"Travel agents fulfil a very important part in the tourism market place. They are not going anywhere. The bulk of the public still feel more secure using a travel agent."

Meanwhile, online travel agent Webjet looks set to take an earnings hit and could write off $43.7 million following the sudden demise of the 178-year-old company.