Booking.com to axe a quarter of workforce
The owner of holiday firm Booking.com has today confirmed that it will cut its 17,000 strong workforce by a quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A spokeswoman for Booking Holding confirmed reports of the cuts, which had been announced internally in a video from chief executive Glenn Fogel.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the crisis, we, like so many other travel companies, need to take the extremely difficult step to reduce our global workforce, with up to 25 per cent of the global employee base intended to be impacted”, she said.
The cuts mean that Booking.com have joined the mass of travel firms to have announced redundancies as a result of the coronavirus downturn.
As a result of global travel restrictions and quarantine rules, the numbers of those flying abroad for holidays has collapsed over the last few months.
Yesterday UK independent holiday firm Hays Travel said that it would make 878 employees redundant as a result of the downturn.
Many of those affected by the cuts were taken on by Hays after the collapse of high street stalwart Thomas Cook last September.
Owners John and Irene Hays said that the government’s decision to impose quarantine restrictions on those travelling back from Spain had meant it was impossible to avoid the cuts.
Likewise, Tui has said that it will permanently shut 166 of its UK high street stores, with 270 staff to be cut as a result.
The firm said that the pandemic had accelerated the switch to online bookings, with 70 per cent of all of its bookings now taken that way.