Holidaymakers who book hotels and flights from different firms but via a single travel intermediary will now get the same protection as those buying traditional package holidays.

Package holidaymakers are both financially and legally covered if things go wrong.

But those who book different elements of their holiday separately have been less well protected.

The new EU regulations attempt to close the gap in consumer protection.

The government said the new rules would protect an extra 10 million package travel holidays a year.

The Package Travel Regulations 2018 were prompted by the growing number of people who book flights, hotels and other tourist services, like car hire, online. Last year 83% of British people booked a holiday over the internet.

The new rules will also apply to people who go into a High Street travel agent and pick and choose separate elements of their holiday and pay for them all together.

Until now mix-and-match holidays were financially protected, if an airline went out of business, for example.

However, if a holidaymaker had a grievance with a hotelier, for example, they would have had to pursue any legal action themselves.

Widening the definition of a package holiday means that from now on in such a situation the travel company is "responsible for making sure that you get the holiday you paid for", the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) said in its guidance on the new rules.

"If something isn't provided or isn't as expected, and your travel company or its suppliers is at fault, they will need to sort this out for you," it added.

Read more on BBC.