This is confirmed at http://www.travelscope.co.uk

Bad news for anyone going away for Christmas, were they ABTA bonded?

And even worse news for the staff, hope they get someting sorted.

Travelscope goes into administration after cashflow difficulties

More than 250 people are expected to lose their jobs as escorted tours specialist Travelscope Holidays was placed into adminstration today.

The Gloucester-based company, which runs worldwide tours plus ocean and river cruise programmes, has ceased taking bookings.

Paul Clark, Phil Duffy and Andrew Stoneman of Menzies Corporate Restructuring were appointed joint administrators.

A Menzies statement said: "The most recent annual turnover for the business was £80 million and it employs 270 staff who are predominantly based at the company's Gloucester offices.

"The company has been experiencing recent cashflow difficulties and whilst it endeavours to seek options for refinancing, it has been placed into administration in order to best protect the company's customers and creditors.

"All customers who have pre-booked holidays through Travelscope Holidays Ltd will be entitled to full refunds through the company's relationships with ATOL and ABTA.

"For customers already on a Travelscope Holiday, they will receive similar protection meaning that ATOL will cover all the things included in their package for the remainder of their holiday, ensuring they come home as originally planned.

"All trading activities have been suspended and no further holiday bookings are being taken.

"Please note that both the company's and the administrator's phone lines are extremely busy at this time and therefore we would ask you to be patient."

The administrators referred inquiries to the company's website for further updates at http://www.travelscope.co.uk.

But is it known that staff have been told that they have lost their jobs - just three days before Christmas.

Travelscope is 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 has been operating for 15 years.

The operator's ocean cruise programme for 2008 was based on the chartered ship MV Van Gogh operating sailings from Falmouth, Harwich and Hull.

With permission from Travelmole

Travelscope has reportedly collapsed and been placed into administration.

The company was an ABTA member and traded under the following brands:

TSI Business to Business
Travelscope Sports
Travelscope Schools
Travelscope Promotions
Travelscope Holidays
Travelscope for Groups
Travelscope Air Holidays
Travelscope
Study the World
River Cruise Collection
Reader Travel
Reader Holidays
Ocean Cruise Collection
Just Friends
TSI

This BBC link provides additional information
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7156391.stm

Apologoes - just seen another posting on the subject (too much sherry at lunch time)
Can one of the Mods please delete

I have merged your post with the existing topic as it contains additional information.

luci

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7157085.stm

Hope people have caught up with this news who are going over the next few days.
Because yesterday daughter said they could only deal with incoming calls. Not allowed to phone and let people know holidays cancelled as the out phone lines are frozen (not allowed to spend any more money). So people going for coaches would not be imformed Whether the situtuation changed today hope so Most pickups are not till late at night.

It was big enough to hit the main news channels, unlike some, so hopefully most people will know. I am so sorry for all those involved, including the staff who have lost their jobs.

luci