Specialist tour operator fails

Specialist tour operator Leisure Direction has been placed into administration, with 5,000 forward bookings.

The company, based in Tottenham Hale, London, was established in 1987.

It traded under a number of names, including French Impressions, French Holiday Service, EuroDrive, Alliance Travel, The Travel Alliance, and Faresavers.

The company also operated The Travel Shop at Maidstone Motorway Service Area, at Junction 8 of the M20.

ABTA said two tour operators have bought booking details of some Leisure Direction clients.

Retail claims arising from the failure will be handled by ABTA's claims handling partner CEGA.

Any claims for principal business, where they include air travel, will be handled by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Leisure Direction also used to trade under a series of 'Best of' names, but these were purchased by Best of Travel Ltd in April 2007.

Best of Travel managing director Eli Idrissi said although the two companies operate from the same building, his companies were trading as normal.

These include Best of France, Best of Greece, Best of Cyprus, Best of Portugal, Best of Turkey, Best of Spain, Best of Italy, and Best of Cruising.

"We used to work together 20 years ago, but we bought the specialist division from them as it was a separate busines," he said.

With permission from Travelmole

(Copying to our Tour Operators, France, Costa Brava and Caravan & Camping forums, where this company has previously been recommended or discussed ... David HT Mod).