A TRAVEL group which brings thousands of visitors into North Wales, including Llandudno, by coach has collapsed into administration.

The Specialist Leisure Group (SLG) - which owned several travel brands including Shearings Holidays, National Holidays, Wallace Arnold Travel, Coast & Country Hotels and Bay Hotels - went into administration with around 2,500 employees made redundant.

The news is set to have a huge impact on Llandudno as National Holidays and Wallace Arnold bring coachloads of visitors to the seaside town’s hotels.

It comes after the Queens Hotel has already closed it’s doors.

Shearings Holidays, which is Europe’s largest coach tour operator and part of the SLG group, has had to cancel 64,000 of its bookings.

Travel trade organisation Abta said the coronavirus pandemic is the main reason for its failure, as it struggled to issue thousands of refunds while new bookings ground to a halt.

SLG chief executive Richard Calvert said: “This is a terribly sad day for employees, customers and commercial partners of the Specialist Leisure Group and its subsidiaries which have entered into administration.

“The effects of Covid-19 on our 117-year-old company and the wider travel industry have been devastating.

“It is heart-breaking that the required funding or investment could not be secured to get us through this unprecedented crisis in order to save SLG and our amazing travel brands.”

The vast majority of SLG’s cancelled bookings were coach package holidays, which are financially protected under the Bonded Coach Holidays scheme.