'Gut-wrenching': UK gap year students lose thousands after tour operator closes

GVI was popular with school leavers and gap year students who would pay to take part in placements.

The company was part of the "voluntourism" sector, which combines voluntary work with adventure travel.

Amy Taylor, from Manchester, says her three-month conservation internship in South Africa is cancelled, with no clarity on if she will get her £4,000 back for the trip.

She describes it as "gut-wrenching" to receive the email from GVI at the start of the month.

For Amy, the South Africa internship was more than just a once in a lifetime trip - but a chance to get hands-on experience in her dream job.

"I was so happy within myself when I got accepted," the 21-year-old student tells Newsbeat.

"I was just so excited about the future that I might have."

After finding out about the programmes at university - where she is studying wildlife conservation and zoo biology - Amy decided to book one in September 2025.

"[The idea was] when I graduate, I'd go to employers and say: I have this much experience, I've got this under my belt."

She hoped her GVI experience would help her "stand out" in the job market and secure her dream job.

But now, "there's essentially absolutely nothing I can do about it."

Amy says potentially losing the money is bad, but not the worst thing about the situation.

It's the "disappointment" of losing the opportunity, she says.

Linus Rowland-Bell, from Liverpool found out about GVI through a university careers fair.

He planned to complete a programme in Peru, billed as an internship in the Amazon rainforest.

The 23-year-old thought it would help his career prospects after finishing his degree in biology and bio-technology.

He paid the full £2,258 up-front after GVI advised him there would be a discount for doing so.

"To save up that money I worked two days a week alongside my studies," he says.

Linus planned to make the trip this summer but says a series of "concerning" events, documented in a series of emails shared with Newsbeat, raised his suspicions.

By May this year, he still had not completed an online training course due to be done in April.

He was told Canvas, the software used to administer the module, was down - something he found "a bit dodgy" because he uses the same platform at university "with no problems whatsoever".

On 28 June, Linus received an email from the centre in Peru advising it could not take on any new participants because GVI had not paid them for six months.

The next day he received an email from GVI saying it was working on a resolution, with an offer to reschedule the planned trip or obtain a credit certificate "for future travel".

Two days later Linus received the liquidation email sent to all customers.

"The thought of all that money, all that time that I've saved up, that excitement completely vanishing into the ether, it was terrifying," he says.

Linus was able to get a full refund via his bank, and says he's exploring last-minute options for this summer.

But the episode has "created a big paranoia in trusting any companies that are in charge of travel bookings," he says.

Amy says she is relying on her bank to reclaim her money as her travel insurance was booked through GVI.

"If I don't get the money back, I can't go anywhere else and I don't really trust anyone at the moment to be able to go anywhere else.

"It didn't seem like they were struggling - everything looked professional."

Another customer, Anna, tells us she was set to fly to Cambodia on 3 July with GVI for a four-week research fellowship.

She says she found out about the GVI closure from a group chat, just as she was getting ready to leave.

"It's just really disappointing."

The university student from Cheshire says her trip cost more than £2,500, and that she has so far only been able to claim back part of her flight.

"Obviously it's quite anxiety-provoking, not knowing where all that money is going."

Anna says she's awaiting more information from the liquidators.

"I know some people have booked six-month or even one-year programmes - it must be really, really tough."

Like Amy, Anna had heard of GVI through university and had no reason to doubt it.

"That's why it was such a shock."