Corporate travel agents will suffer more failures as a result of the recession than those working in the leisure market.
Speaking about the failure of Windsor and Neate Travel, which was one of three travel companies to collapse at the end of last week, ABTA chairman and Advantage Travel Centres chief executive John McEwan said the corporate travel market had been badly hit as companies slashed travel budgets.
The cuts have seen overall corporate travel sales fall by more than 30% this year, as opposed to an overall drop of 11% in the leisure market.
He said this trend could have affected Advantage member Windsor and Neate Travel, which traded in Newbury, Berkshire, for more than 120 years.
McEwan said: “I expect to see more consolidations and failures in the corporate travel market. We’re finding that it is the corporate market that has been far more affected this year.
“Many companies are being quite draconian in terms of cutting travel expenditure, and it’s having a pretty dramatic effect on everyone.
“If you’ve had a significant drop in corporate travel then there’s very little you can do about it, with leisure, you can always do more marketing or target people.”
Windsor and Neate Travel ceased trading on August 20, just a day before The Package Holiday Company and Cambuslang Travel both ceased trading.
The Package Holiday Company, which is based in Kippax, Leeds, or Cambuslang Travel in Glasgow, which also had a branch in East Kilbride, aren’t able to meet their future liabilities.
Any retail claims arising following the failures will be handled by ABTA’s claims handling partner CEGA.