The volunteer travel operator GVI has gone into liquidation, leaving scores of UK school leavers and gap year students who had paid thousands of pounds for overseas conservation placements with cancelled trips and no refunds. The company continued advertising and taking bookings until it removed its website and ceased trading on 1 July, informing customers by email that their placements would not go ahead. The collapse matters because many affected students had saved for years or given up jobs, and some now face a wasted year having missed university application deadlines.

GVI operated in the "voluntourism" sector, placing paying volunteers on wildlife and marine projects while promising funding to the local conservation partners hosting them. One student paid over £10,000 for a South African game reserve placement; the Kawsay Biological Station in Peru says it is owed more than $56,000 and had been using personal savings to keep going. Founders Andrew Valentine and Brett Akker had already put an earlier version of the company into liquidation last September owing suppliers £1.5m. Customers say they were pressured to pay balances in full by bank transfer shortly before the collapse, leaving them without credit or debit card refund protection and at the back of the creditors' queue.