Rescue plan for round-world trip

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/7158223.stm

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Holidaymakers who thought they had lost out on a round-the-world cruise after the collapse of Travelscope Holidays may have a lifeline.

Dutch company Club Cruise, whose ship the Van Gogh was chartered by Travelscope, is in negotiations with Abta for the cruise to go ahead.

Managing Director Gerard van Leest told BBC News he had offered the cruise for lower than the cost of compensation.

An Abta spokesman said the negotiations were due to end on Monday.

If the deal is struck, it will see Abta pay Club Cruise to go ahead with the cruise, for £500,000 less than it would have had to pay in compensation to customers.

'Unusual move'

"We offered Abta to commence the cruise for £2.5m," said Mr van Leest.

"Some £3m will be lost otherwise so I have offered Abta today to let the booked passengers go on 4 January 2008 and enjoy their booked world cruise."

Abta spokesman Sean Cipton said: "We are in discussions with the administrators of Travelscope and the cruise company."

He added it was an unusual move for a travel firm to attempt to resurrect a threatened cruise at such short notice.

As many as 40,000 holidaymakers were hit by the collapse of Gloucester-based Travelscope on Friday, with many Christmas and New Year trips cancelled.

Full cost

About 10,000 people were due to travel over the festive period, and 30,000 next year.

All will have the full cost of their holidays refunded, administrators said, with Abta refunding land and sea passengers and the Civil Aviation Authority covering payments for air passengers.

More than 200 people are likely to lose their jobs and the firm's boss said he "deeply regretted" what had happened.

Managing director Richard Ford said he had held off putting the business into administration until he had paid all the staff their December wages.

A decision from Abta on whether or not they will agree to Club Cruise's offer to underwrite the round-the-world cruise was due on Christmas Eve.