BREAKING: Creative Holidays to close

Creative Holidays will cease operations effective 31 December 2015.

The F.I.T business, part of The Travel Corporation (TTC), advised employees yesterday afternoon of the imminent closure and restructure. It is understood many staff are expected to be offered positions across the various TTC brands which includes Insight Vacations, Contiki, Trafalgar and AAT Kings among others.

The move comes after extensive analysis and a rigorous review of the business model, according to the company.

“Recognising rapid change and unprecedented challenges in the market for a generalist wholesaler, the immediate and utmost priority is the welfare and, where possible, the redeployment of the Creative Holidays team,” TTC said in a statement released this morning.

The closure in no way affects the company’s wholesale cruising arm, Creative Cruising, added to the Creative portfolio in April 2014 following TTC’s purchase of Adventure World. The company said “both of which remain fully operational and focused on future growth potential”.

Most recently, the independent holiday company made substantial investment to improve its online offering, overhauling its trade website in June, followed by a roll out of advancements to its agent booking technology – releasing the latest version in September.

TTC also recently welcomed a new CEO to the helm, ex-Flight Centre exec John Veitch, in September.

“I can confirm the imminent closure of Creative Holidays. It goes without saying that this has been a tough decision, which was made in close collaboration with the Board of Directors at TTC, following an exhaustive review of the brand over an extended period of time,” Veitch said.

“The fiercely competitive environment in which we now operate has made for a difficult business proposition for a mass generalist FIT independent wholesaler such as Creative Holidays, hence we have reached this sad conclusion. We wish to extend sincere gratitude to all of those in the industry that have supported Creative Holidays over the years and thank the team in particular for their unrelenting commitment.”

“We see immense growth opportunity in cruising and niche specialist FIT operations, so our aim is to redeploy as many of the Creative Holidays team as possible into Creative Cruising and Adventure World, as well as other areas of TTC. We are currently working through this process with those whose roles have been impacted. It is absolutely our number one priority to look after our people,” Veitch continued.

No other companies in the TTC portfolio are affected by the closure.

Agents with existing bookings will be contacted by a member of the Creative Holidays team in order to discuss options. A Creative Holidays transition team will remain in place to look after existing bookings.

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