RETIRED couple Nancy and Gerald Burgess were packed and ready to head off on their dream Christmas holiday, when the news came that Gloucester-based Travelscope had collapsed.

The Burgesses were looking forward to a week-long coach trip to Tirol in Austria and were due to be picked up at 1am on Saturday from their Moredon home for the start of their festive getaway.

But as the news broke on Friday that the company had gone into administration, they were left in the lurch. They are among a reported 10,000 to be hit in the Christmas collapse, with a further 30,000 holidays lost into the new year.

The £600 holiday was booked in September and Mr and Mrs Burgess completed their payments around two months ago.

The couple's family have rallied round and they will be spending Christmas day at one of their daughter's homes, instead of the snowy climes of the Tirol.

Travelscope was taking money from its customers right up until the last days of trading, as Mr and Mrs Burgess paid out an extra £94 for two day trips as part of their holiday.

Mrs Burgess, 71, whose husband is 75, said: "We have been to Austria quite a few times but I have always said I'd love to go at Christmas time.

"We have been in January, and now I'm retired I don't have to work at Christmas so we can go. It was so disappointing to hear and it just can't go ahead now, not this year."

Administrators have said holidaymakers will get the full cost of any cancelled holidays refunded, but it is expected that most of the firms 270 staff will be laid off.

It is thought that 854 people had been due to travel on Saturday, but Travelscope contacted its customers to tell them the news.

Joint administrator Paul Clark, of Menzies Corporate Restruct-uring, said: "At least one call was made to every single one of those passengers on the numbers we had on the company's documentation.

"We reckon about 80 per cent were contacted. Valiant attempts are being made to contact all these people.

"We've now got another 1,900 people that need to be contacted for trips for the next few days.

"This is a very, very busy time for the Travelscope business."

People whose holidays have to be cancelled will receive refunds, with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) covering payments for air passengers, and land and sea passengers receiving refunds from the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta).