Cheshire-based operator Creative Travel Group has gone bust, but it is unclear what the implications are for the closely-linked “Holidays in a Box”.
The operator, which also traded as Holiday Cafe, Lastchancetravel.co.uk and Creative Travel Solutions, ceased trading on Monday after it was unable to meet it liabilities, according to ABTA.
Finance director of Creative Travel Group was Nigel Smith, whose previous roles in the industry include head of commercial for Thomas Cook.
Creative was well known for Holidays in a Box, distributed through retailers such as John Lewis, Nectar and Argos. But an ABTA spokesman was unable to confirm this morning whether Holidays in a Box, which operated as a separate limited company, was still trading. Although he added that the Holidays in a Box was not an ABTA member.
While the Holidays in a Box contact telephone is not working, its website is live unlike the other websites linked to Creative Travel. According to Mr Smith, consumers that bought Holidays in a Box products have their holidays fulfilled by an ABTA member, so should be able to proceed with their holiday if the member is still trading, or will be covered if it is not.
Creative Travel Group has around 160 employees at its office in Altrincham, Cheshire. Claims arising from the failure will be handled by the ABTA Claims Department.
Creative is the 27th ABTA member to go bust this year, which is broadly in line with the statistics for the last three years – at the same time in 2003, 27 ABTA members had gone bust, while in 2002 at this time the figure was 25 and in 2001 the figure was 28.
Report by Ginny McGrath
