UK Holiday Company with Coach Breaks and Hotel Packages to Spain and France Goes Into Administration

A big name UK holiday company, which offered coach breaks and packages to Spain and France amongst a substantial portfolio, has gone into administration.

THE Specialist Leisure Group (SLG) features well-known brand names like Wallace Arnold, Shearings Holidays, and National Holidays.

Travel association ABTA, said that over 640,000 bookings will be affected and blamed the pandemic on the collapse, as the Specialist Group struggled to issue thousands of refunds while new bookings ground to a halt.

SLG chief executive Richard Calvert said: “This is a terribly sad day for employees, customers and commercial partners of the Specialist Leisure Group and its subsidiaries which have entered into administration.

“The effects of Covid-19 on our 117-year-old company and the wider travel industry have been devastating.

“In the most trying of circumstances, over these past few months, we have fought tooth and nail to save the group and the jobs of our 2,400 loyal employees serving over 1.1 million customers annually.

“It is heartbreaking that the required funding or investment could not be secured to get us through this unprecedented crisis in order to save SLG and our amazing travel brands.”

The vast majority of SLG’s cancelled bookings were coach package holidays, which are financially protected under the Bonded Coach Holidays scheme.

Anyone with a package holiday including a flight can claim their money back through ATOL, which is operated by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Customers with hotel-only bookings are advised to contact their credit or debit card provider in a bid to retrieve their money.

John de Vial, ABTA’s director of membership and financial services, said: “The Specialist Leisure Group included two of the UK’s best known coach holiday brands, Shearings and National Holidays, two much-loved holiday companies who for many years have provided holidays both at home and overseas to a very loyal group of customers.

“It is a very sad day for these customers and the thousands of staff who will have lost their jobs.

“The fact that two such well-known brands with a loyal customer base have had to call in administrators is a stark indication of the pressure that the holiday industry is under as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“ABTA has repeatedly highlighted to the government the urgency of the situation and the need to set out a co-ordinated strategy with clearer communication if it wants to help avoid significant job losses and support companies to weather the storm.”