Thousand of British tourists have been left heartbroken after a leading cruise line which was begin to begin a New Year voyage from Malaysia, collapsed along with a sister firm.
Cruise specialist All Leisure Holidays became the first casualty of 2017 as it hit a “perfect storm” of terror attacks in tourist hotspots and a plummeting pound.
Voyages of Discovery, part of the All Leisure Group, cancelled cruise aboard the Voyager to Borneo, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore two days before the New Year. Its sister company Swan Hellenic, did the same for a cruise due to depart on 3rd January.
Passengers were told the cancellations were for “operational reasons”. But now All Leisure has ceased trading and all future holiday bookings with the company are now cancelled.
More than 7,000 breaks have been cancelled forcing 13,500 Brits looking forward to a trip of a lifetime from the Mediterranean and Malaysia to Singapore to claim a refund and then find another holiday.
Now the 400 holidaymakers were being flown back to the UK after their cruises to iconic destinations ended.
All Leisure Group of Market Harborough, Leicestershire which ran popular cruise brands Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery has apologized to devastated customers hoping to celebrate landmark events like birthdays and anniversary.
According to Abta, the travel association, the firm has around 13,000 forward bookings. About one-third of those are for UK departures, and are financially protected by Abta.
Other customers who have Atol-protected bookings where the cruise was sold along with a flight will be able to claim from the CAA. A dedicated helpline has been set up.
The All Leisure Group, Chairman, told the media that, a perfect storm of geo-political upsets and cost increases had led to the failure. He added that, there are a lot of historical places that they operate to, like the Black Sea and North Africa, which are simply not feasible.
They are trying to get as much money back as they can for the creditors and give it back to the people who are booked for the summer as much time as possible to organize alternatives.
All Leisure Group also owns Page and Moy Travel Group Holidays, which trades as Just You and Travelsphere, which also ceased trading.
However, in a deal brokered by administrators at Grant Thornton, the Page and Moy business has been sold to G Adventures (UK) Ltd and bookings with Just You and Travelsphere will go ahead.
The sale means around 200 jobs will be saved at the firm’s Harborough headquarters. Twenty to 30 staff are thought to have been made redundant.
