British Cruise Company Closes Its Doors

It has been a sad week in the world of travel , and especially cruising. All Leisure group who own Voyages of Discovery and Swan Hellenic sadly shut there doors for the last time and have officially gone out of business.

Both brands have always been very popular and I have booked many passengers onboard who have had thoroughly enjoyable cruises on both brands but it seems this just wasn’t enough and the business wasn’t making a profit and we all know as a business you need to make a profit to survive!

At the time of the collapse there were around 400 people still abroad and the CAA are going to be helping these passengers to make there way back to the UK this shows great importance to make sure any holiday company you are booking with holds an ATOL licence, All Leisure thankfully did which means there are no charges for the passengers to return to the UK.  There are another 7000 bookings were scheduled for later in the year, resulting in almost 13,000 passengers being affected.

All leisure group were thankfully ABTA bonded and passengers will receive refunds but theirs no limit on just how long this is going to take, thankfully other cruise liners have stepped in to offer various deals and discount for passengers affected including Fred Olsen who are another British cruise liner with 3 ships in there fleet, they have been offering the unlucky passengers a variety of deals to help passengers at least get another cruise holiday booked.

Have you been affected by the collapse? Were you due to sail on the Voyages Of Discovery or Swan Hellenic cruise ships? If so and you nee any help in regards to booking another cruise feel free to contact me.