Agents brace for pile of bills as pressures mount


Juliet Dennis


Agents fear financial pressure on their businesses is reaching a critical stage as they continue to battle for lockdown aid and face a longer wait for the next self-employed grant. A glut of outgoings due in the


next three months includes tax bills at the end of January, deferred tax and VAT bills from last year, Abta bonding and membership renewals in March, business insurance and consortia membership renewals. In addition, loans given out by the


government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme will need to be repaid from March onwards. Spear Travels chairman Peter


Cookson said the biggest problem for his 12 agencies was access to Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSGs) via different councils. He said: “Some come through


in a couple of days. Others take weeks. And some, like Birmingham City Council, still owe us £2,000 from LRSGs in early December and haven’t started looking at the most recent lockdown grants. It’s all a mess and really time-consuming.” Meanwhile, fears are growing


that the fourth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), for


Some agents are waiting weeks to receive support grants from their councils


Many in travel


are taking part-time jobs to supplement their incomes


February to April, will not be made available until after the March Budget. Westoe Travel owner Graeme


Brett said: “Many in travel are taking part-time jobs to supplement their incomes. They need to know if they will get the self-employed support grant so they can budget. “They may have the worry of


having to repay business interruption loans at the same time as not knowing if they are getting this grant.”


‘One of life’s good guys’: Tributes


to Azure Collection’s Gary Aplin Tributes have been paid to Azure Collection agency sales manager Gary Aplin (pictured), who died last week after a battle with a rare form of cancer, aged 51. Agents and colleagues described Aplin as “one of life’s good guys”, who could “light up a room” and had a “glass totally full attitude”.


8 28 JANUARY 2021 Labour MP Kate Green this


week wrote to ministers who led the government’s Global Travel Taskforce to highlight “severe financial pressures” faced by agents after hosting an online surgery for constituents in the industry. Homeworker Sue Welsh, of Ace


Travel2, told Green she had been unable to access any grants. “We just want some help,” she said. Jill Waite, director of Pole Travel,


said agents would soon have to pay back Bounce Back Loans after nearly a year without income. “We are still changing holidays and making refunds but there’s no


targeted industry support,” she said. i Get Social, page 25


Carnival Cruise Line pushes back US restart to end of April


Carnival Cruise Line has further extended the suspension of ex-US sailings to the end of April and pushed back the launch of Mardi Gras to May 29. Ex-Barcelona sailings on Carnival Legend have been pushed back to October 31. Meanwhile, MSC Cruises’ Grandiosa resumed Mediterranean sailings on Sunday.


Williams succeeds Parton as chair of Clia trade working group


MSC Cruises UK and Ireland sales director Steve Williams (pictured) is the new chair of Clia’s trade engagement working group. He takes over from Avalon sales director Janet Parton, who completed her two-year term. MSC chairman Pierfrancesco Vago has become global chairman of Clia for two years, succeeding Adam Goldstein.


travelweekly.co.uk


Hays Travel to shut almost 90 ex-Cook stores


Hays Travel is to close 89 of its 535 shops amid the continued pressures of the pandemic. The UK’s largest travel agency


said it is offering alternative work to the 388 staff affected, including the chance to work from home, to join Hays Travel’s homeworking division or to take positions in other shops with vacancies. The company said it had


deferred reviewing the performance of the former Thomas Cook shops it acquired in October 2019 to see if business returned in 2021. All but one of the closures will be ex-Cook shops, with one a former store of the Tailor Made Travel agency in Wales that Hays acquired last year. Hays Travel, which employs


7,700 people, said the third national lockdown and ban on international travel meant it had to act. Dame Irene Hays, chair of the


company, said: “It was always our intention to review the performance of our shops at the end of the licence period. We had hoped the business would bounce back in January and it has not.”


Hays is cutting its chain to 446 stores


PICTURE: Shutterstock


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