Epidemic hits bookings of Devon agency

Epidemic hits bookings of Devon agency

A DEVON agent has given his business just two months to survive as bookings have been wiped out by the effects of the foot and mouth crisis.

Holsworthy Travel owner Ron Gerry said the disease was confirmed in his area one Saturday in February. The following Monday it was “as if the tap had been turned off”.

“Our business is down 85%,” he said. “I can only go on like this for a couple more months. There is nothing I can do but sit and wait for the business to collapse.”

Gerry, who also owns Launceston Travel in Cornwall, has nine staff including two part-timers.

“I have not laid anyone off yet. We are a close-knit company but staff know we cannot go on indefinitely,” he said.

Gerry said 60% of his customers are farmers or are working in farm-related businesses. Some 25% are retired people who have moved to the area and 15% are locals working in other industries.

“Even the retired people are not going out. People are not leaving their houses,” he added.

ABTA southwest region chairman Roger Warren, who owns seven agencies in Somerset, said there is a lot of gloom in the county even though it is free of the disease.

“Business is down 10%,” he said. “There is too much doubt and fear about the future.”