Rescue bid for Travelscope Holidays
The business of escorted tours specialist Travelscope Holidays might be rescued by a last minute purchase, according to its administrators Menzies Corporate Restructuring.
Menzies partner Paul Clark, joint administrator to Travelscope Holidays, said yesterday afternoon (Tuesday): “We are in advanced negotiations with a number of competing parties who are interested in taking over the business of Travelscope.
“We expect to conclude these negotiations and announce completion of a sale within the next 48 hours.
“For legal and confidentiality reasons, we are unable to provide any detail at this time.
“This does regrettably mean that holidays due to take place imminently have been cancelled, including departures planned up to and including January 13 2008.
“This affects 273 passengers who have and are all being made aware of the position.
“The position regarding holidays planned for after January 13 is still uncertain but we would hope that the new owners would be able to preserve existing bookings.
“The website is being kept up to date with information and we expect to make further announcements later this week.”
The Gloucester-based company, which ran worldwide tours plus ocean and river cruise programmes, ceased taking bookings on December 23.
The company had been experiencing cash flow difficulties, which it reportedly blamed on a cancelled cruise.
Travelscope was a member of ABTA and holds an ATOL licence with the Civil Aviation Authority and is also a member of the Passenger Shipping Association. It had been operating for 15 years.
The operator’s ocean cruise programme for 2008 was based on the chartered ship Van Gogh operating sailings from Falmouth, Harwich and Hull.
By Bev Fearis and Phil Davies
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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