It is with regret that from today The Travel Centre at Southampton University Students’ Union will close.
The Students’ Union wishes to thank all customers who have used The Travel Centre, many of whom have been loyal and steadfast throughout.
As an independent travel provider, we have been under pressure from internet travel operators for many years and it’s clear that the forecast for high street operations is not set to improve. We have always taken pride in the personal, professional service we have offered, as well as the independent, expert advice we have given, but we are no longer able to continue to trade at a loss.
We have an ongoing commitment to those customers with travel booked over the coming months. We will have a member of Travel Centre staff available for existing customers until 30 April and she can be contacted by email on travel@soton.ac.uk and by telephone on 02380 595237 (internal 25237). After this date Amity World Travel will be providing this administrative assistance. We will be contacting all customers with future bookings directly with further details about this.
The Travel Centre staff have worked extremely hard over many years to ensure The Travel Centre has remained open. They have worked on various initiatives to bring extra business to The Travel Centre and have provided an efficient and expert led service to both students and University staff. A full and open consultation has taken place over recent weeks with affected employees.
The Travel Centre has been under threat of closure for some years. Union Council set clear financial targets in June 2008, which required a declining deficit, accumulating to £60k over 4 years. In the first two years the combined deficit was £47k, with a further £25k estimated this year. We had been working with the University to ensure The Travel Centre business was transferred to a third party supplier of travel products to the University, but the University has decided not go ahead with this planned travel management project, due to the recently announced reorganisation within the University, which will prove too disruptive to allow the project to work well at this time.
As an organisation, it is important for the Students’ Union to improve our efficiencies and become more cost-effective. We are also keen to ensure that our resources are targeted on our core business activities, particularly in the light of our imminent charity registration, which precludes the use of charitable funds to subsidise non-charitable activity. With this in mind it has been decided by Students’ Union Trustees and members of the Union Management Board to close The Travel Centre immediately.
16 April, 2010