Online travel agency ceases trading

 

THE FIRST travel company casualty of the summer has taken place in Britain, ahead of the busiest week of the year for holidaymakers.

“Travel Click Ltd trading aswww.travelclickholidays.co.uk has ceased trading with immediate effect,” the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced.

Travel Click had been running for five years from its home base in Enfield in north London.

The company’s collapse will have an affect on the Cypriot market as Travel Click organised holidays to the island.

According to the Independent, the company advertised “Luxury holidays to Dubai, Vegas, Florida, Cyprus, Greece and worldwide”. Most of its business though was aimed at Mediterranean destinations with discounted hotel accommodation.

Some of the holidays were sold through promotional websites such as Travelzoo and Secret Escapes.

The Independent reported that the firm’s annual turnover was thought to be around €580,000, which translates at around 1,000 holidaymakers. Most of the customers affected bought package holidays that are protected by the CAA’s Air Travel Organisers’ Licence (ATOL) scheme which provides insurance for holidaymakers.

Those abroad should be able to continue their holidays as normal, while people with future bookings for inclusive packages should be able to reclaim the cost of their holidays.

The outlook for customers of Travel Click who had bought flight-only or accommodation-only deals is less clear according to the Independent. A leading travel-industry figure, David Speakman of Travel Counsellors, criticised consumer-protection rules as confusing.

“Customers believe that when they see the Atol logo they are covered for everything the company sells, but they aren’t. The system is too complex,” he told the paper.

Travel Click Ltd appeared, alongside around 50 other companies on a list of ‘late-renewing ATOL holders’ issued in April by the CAA’s Consumer Protection Group.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.