Thirty-nine Scottish schools are being bailed out of a financial hole after Top Class Travel, the Coatbridge tour operator, crashed just before the Christmas break. Schools are again questioning the security of deposits after the company failed to disclose that it was no longer backed by the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta).
Top Class Travel established a reputation for reliability over 14 years and stressed its cover through Abta, yet it ceased to be an Abta member on October 4 without informing clients. Party leaders booking after that date had no cover for deposits of pound;30 to pound;60 per pupil.
Schools stood to lose deposits running to pound;70,000 until a rival company stepped in and took over the bookings after a deal with the liquidator. NST Group, an established Blackpool-based operator, was trying to contact schools before the holidays to rearrange trips.
Schools that booked before October 4 were covered. In a rich irony, the Top Class website proclaimed, even after the company went bust: “Book anywhere you see the Abta sign for complete peace of mind.”
Doug Marr, head of Banchory Academy, Aberdeenshire, said the deposits of 30 children, running to pound;2,500, were threatened until NST picked up the art department trip to Amsterdam in May. Ferry times had been confirmed by Top Class although it had failed to make the booking. “What concerns me is that we made a booking in good faith that the company was a member of Abta. But it was not. They can leave without schools knowing this has happened,” Mr Marr said.
The school is taking up to 500 pupils on a variety of trips at home and abroad in May but the demise of Top Class has raised questions. “You begin to wonder about the domino effect,” Mr Marr said.
Jim Welsh, Top Class’s chief executive, said that after the decision to quit Abta he had tried to establish alternative cover, with a proposal to offload the entire business to NST which was declined. “With hindsight we should have maybe called in the liquidators when we resigned from Abta but we had so many commitments with groups travelling in the school holiday week,” he said.
David Craven, NST’s chairman, said: “I do not believe there was any intention to deceive clients. It’s just they have got in a big mess.”
Top Class was a sponsor of the Scottish School Board Association and helped to promote its booklet on safe school travel and trips.
Check first
All companies must by law ensure deposits are covered. Abta remains the umbrella organisation for 90 per cent of travel agents and operators but a spokeswoman said it was “quite impossible to regulate every single travel company in the whole country”. Schools should phone Abta to check before booking.
