UK's largest tour operator Tui to close almost 50 more shops

Warrington has two shops - a branch at the Golden Square and a 'travel superstore' at Junction Nine Retail Park.

But the company has declined to publish a list of those affected at this stage.

The UK's largest tour operator said it would offer to redeploy employees at risk of redundancy to other stores or to work from home.

The move follows the closure of 166 Tui shops announced in July 2020 which affected up to 900 jobs.

Both decisions were made after the pandemic sped up a shift to people making online holiday bookings.

Under the Covid restrictions in England, holidays abroad are currently banned which has also added to the pressure that travel firms are under.

Tui will have 314 high street retail stores remaining following the closures.

The firm said in a statement: "The travel industry and the British high street are both facing unprecedented pressure.

"We can therefore confirm that we are proposing to close 48 retail stores. All colleagues at risk of redundancy will be offered roles in other stores where there are vacancies, or in the new homeworking retail and contact centre team.

"We have world class travel advisors at Tui, so we hope many of them will become homeworkers and continue to offer the personalised service we know our customers value."

The holiday firm said in February that it expects to run 80 per cent of its normal capacity for this summer, with 2.8 million customers already booked for its holidays.

But income in the three months to the end of 2020 fell 87.8 per cent year-on-year, from €3.86billion (£3.4billion) to €468.1million.