Chesterfield-based Nova Tours announced on Thursday 16 April that it had ceased trading. David Sheriff of Nova Tours was first established in 1988, due to the increase in business and the company going from strength to strength in 2010 it changed its name to Nova Tours Ltd.
Managing Director David Sheriff released the following statement on the companies Facebook page:
“It is with deep regret that we must inform you Nova Tours has ceased trading.
“Nova Tours was covered by TRIP meaning every passenger will receive a full refund. We will be in touch with every single person that has booked with Nova Tours and we will inform you on how to make a claim if we issued you a gift voucher in March rest assured these are covered under the policy. We would like to say that we know we got a few things wrong in March when the travel ban was first announced we could never have imagined what was about to unfold had we have known we would have acted differently.
“When Covid-19 landed in the UK we were inundated with panic cancellations for the whole year. We estimate we lost around 40% of our bookings for the year in front in the first few weeks of that first case being diagnosed. Then we had to contend with the travel ban we completely understand why it had to be done none the less it had a catastrophic effect on our business as we have had to issue huge amounts of refunds and gift vouchers. The final nail being we were down 100% on new bookings with no revenue coming in and being faced with an unprecedented amount of refunds to process and not knowing how long this would last the reality is we are a small business and in the end, we could not survive Covid -19.
“The cruel part being we had hugely invested in Nova Tours future and we were set for such a fantastic year.
“I would like to thank all the hoteliers who did their upmost to help us in those early days when they themselves were suffering your kindness and understanding makes us all so proud of this amazing industry.
“I hope you remember your holidays with Nova Tours and the joy and happiness they brought you.
“I wish everyone in this industry all the luck in the world.”
By Friday 17 April, the post on the companies Facebook page had received over 200 comments from the companies customers who expressed their love for the company and how they will miss going away with them.
Nova Tours LTD had a Standard International licence to operate three vehicles from its depot in Renishaw. In October last year the company proudly took part in a special event to take delivery of the 500th Yutong vehicle to be delivered in the UK by Pelican Bus & Coach, the GT12 touring was also displayed at Coach & Bus UK at the NEC.
