It was confirmed on 10 September that the luxury tour operator, owned by Saga Group, had ceased trading.

"It is with great regret we have to announce that Destinology Limited is now closed," read a message on the operator’s website.

Speaking to TTG, Alistair Rowland, new group chief at Blue Bay Travel, said the company "remained open to acquisitions, but the timing is very difficult". 

"I can’t say whether we were [previously] the likely buyer of Destinology or not.

"What I can say is that we’ve always been huge fans of Destinology. I think it’s a terrific brand, always great in its marketplace. 

"It operates in a different space to us. It’s premium luxury, very bespoke tailor-made packages, but it’s not dissimilar in terms of size and scale. 

"And we have a website for our upper end clients clients called Exclusivity, in a similar space. They’re just much bigger than us in this space."

Rowland continued: "The parent, Saga, have chosen to do an orderly wind down. So all the creditors should get paid. It’s more sensible, but sadly not great for all of the people. 

"I suspect that Saga will take a view in the future about what to do with the brand that they own and whether they want to retain that within Saga or sell what remains. 

"We will continue to watch that one really carefully because Destinology was a great brand, and certainly really powerful in the premium luxury market."