Hundreds of children who were booked on a magical trip to visit Father Christmas were left disappointed on Friday as the company behind the tours went into administration.
Nortours, a London-based firm which organised so-called Santa Claus tours to Scandinavia and the Baltics, was forced to call in the administrators after suffering from fierce competition in the travel sector.
About 500 families with bookings for this Christmas were told their trips had been scrapped, although they should receive full refunds.
”Christmas is an awful time for any business to go into administration,” said Philip Long, head of corporate recovery at administrator PKF.
”The nature of Nortours’s product — Santa Claus tours — makes this administration all the more upsetting not only for the staff, but also for the families who will have been expecting to fly off to visit Santa in the next few days,” he said.
The tour operator, which is registered as Finlandia Travel Agency but operates as Nortours, was established in 1963 and has been running its Father Christmas holiday deal for 20 years.
Nortours said in a statement on its website that none of the Santa Holidays would go ahead since it had been unable to raise the minimum number of passengers needed to transfer to another operator.
But it directed customers to another company, Colchester Travel, willing to help disappointed families.
On the bright side, the trips are protected by the Civil Aviation Authority, Atol and Abta so all travellers should receive a full refund.
Long said the administrators would do everything possible to find the best solution for everyone affected.
He added, however: ”Unfortunately, none of the holidays will go ahead.”
Nortours employs 12 staff and has an average annual turnover of nine million pounds ($16-million). – Sapa-AFP