Hays Travel shuts 89 shops as Covid batters tourism industry 

Hays Travel is permanently closing 89 branches across the UK as the pandemic continues to batter the tourism industry.

The former Thomas Cook shops were bought by the holiday company in 2019, and Hays had been hoping trading would rebound in 2021.

But the imposition of another lockdown – and the suspension of flights and holidays by major providers that followed – meant the company had to act to cut costs, it said.

Covid victim: Hays Travel is permanently closing 89 former Thomas Cook shops across the UK as the pandemic continues to batter the tourism industry

Hays said it is offering alternative work to 388 staff who will be affected by the closures.

Dame Irene Hays, owner and chairman, said: ‘We had hoped the business would bounce back in January, and it has not. 

‘We have done everything we could to safeguard jobs and the business thus far, and we have come up with a range of options for those at risk of redundancy to help as many colleagues as we can.’

Chief operating officer Jonathon Woodall added that Hays would be ‘ready for the bounce back when it comes’.

Trade union TSSA said the closures were sad but inevitable’. 

Manuel Cortes, the general secretary, said: ‘With coronavirus rampant and the usual January booking of summer holidays absent, the travel trade continues to suffer.’