UK Students in 'Shock' After Travel Company GVI Shuts Down

A travel company called GVI has shut down, leaving many young people in the UK without their planned trips and thousands of pounds out of pocket. GVI offered volunteer and conservation programs in places like Fiji, Cambodia, and South Africa. Students who had paid to take part found out through emails in early July 2025 that all programs were cancelled. The company confirmed it would go into liquidation — a process where a business closes and sells off what it owns to pay its debts — on 1 July.

GVI had been running for 28 years and was popular with school leavers and gap year students. The company was part of a growing industry called 'voluntourism,' which blends volunteer work with travel and adventure. Students would pay to join programs where they helped with conservation or community projects around the world. Many felt the experience would help them stand out when looking for jobs after finishing university.

Amy Taylor, a 21-year-old from Manchester, had booked a three-month conservation internship in South Africa. She was studying wildlife conservation and zoo biology at university and hoped the trip would give her real work experience in her dream field. She paid £4,000 for the program and is still unsure whether she will get any of that money back. Amy described the moment she received the cancellation email as 'gut-wrenching.'

For Amy, the trip was not just a vacation — it was a step toward her career. She had planned to tell future employers about her hands-on experience in South Africa. Now she feels helpless, saying there is 'essentially absolutely nothing I can do about it.' She added that while losing the money is painful, the loss of the opportunity itself is even worse.

Linus Rowland-Bell, 23, from Liverpool, found out about GVI at a university careers fair. He had booked a program in Peru, described as an internship in the Amazon rainforest, to help boost his career after finishing his degree in biology and bio-technology. To save the £2,258 needed, he worked two days a week while studying full-time. GVI advised him to pay the full amount up front for a discount, which he did.

Linus noticed several warning signs before GVI officially closed. An online training course that should have been completed in April still had not been set up for him by May. He was told the software platform was not working, but found this hard to believe since he used the same platform at university without any problems. Then, on 28 June, he received an email from the center in Peru saying GVI had not paid them in six months and could not accept new participants.

Just one day later, GVI sent Linus an email saying it was working on a solution and offered to reschedule his trip or give him a credit note for future travel. Two days after that, the company sent all customers an email announcing it was going into liquidation. Linus was lucky enough to get a full refund through his bank and is now exploring last-minute travel options. However, the experience has made him deeply suspicious of travel companies.

GVI's CEO, Andrew Valentine, posted a statement on the company's website calling the closure 'a deeply sad conclusion to a remarkable journey.' He said the company deeply regrets the effect on its staff, its overseas projects, and its customers. All current and future GVI programs have been cancelled, and customers have been directed to contact the company's liquidators to make a claim. The company's website now only shows this statement, along with instructions on how to file for a refund.

Amy is relying on her bank to get her money back, because her travel insurance had been arranged through GVI itself. She said that if she does not recover the money, she cannot afford to book any other trip. She also said she felt blindsided because GVI had always seemed professional and showed no signs of financial trouble. Another student, Anna from Cheshire, was about to fly to Cambodia on 3 July for a four-week research fellowship when she heard the news through a group chat.

Anna's trip cost more than £2,500, and she has only been able to recover part of the cost of her flights so far. She described the whole situation as 'anxiety-provoking,' not knowing what will happen to the rest of her money. Anna, like Amy, had first heard of GVI through her university and had no reason to distrust it. 'That's why it was such a shock,' she said.