Overview
- GVI, the Exeter-based voluntourism operator, announced at the start of July that it was closing and that all current and future programmes were cancelled.
- Thousands of gap-year students and recent graduates face financial losses for paid placements, with individual sums reported as high as about £4,000.
- RG Insolvency has been reported as the appointed liquidator and customers have been told to wait for formal correspondence explaining how to lodge claims.
- Some overseas partner centres say GVI has left unpaid invoices — a Peru centre told participants it had not been paid for six months — leaving local conservation and community projects uncertain.
- A small number of customers have recovered money through bank chargebacks or separate insurance, but many will depend on the liquidators’ claims process and may be blocked where insurance or bookings were handled through GVI.