Travel giant TUI closes its King Street store in South Shields

The travel company, TUI, formerly known as Thomson Holidays, closed its South Shields store on King Street, on Wednesday, December 18.

The company has confirmed the closure and thanked staff for their hard work, saying the decision was made as part of an ongoing “review” of their estate to ensure their stores are in the “right places”.

It comes not long after Sunderland based travel company Hays Travel announced it would reopen all 555 former Thomas Cook branches after the UK tour operator and airline collapsed earlier this year.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We can confirm that TUI’s South Shields closed on December, 18, 2019, and we would like to thank our retail colleagues for all their hard work. We’re always looking for opportunities to become more effective and efficient. This is a continual process to ensure we’re evolving our business and ensure our stores are in the right places and we’ll continue to review our estate.”

The closure is the latest in a long line of high street names which King Street has lost recently, including H Samuel which was located next door to TUI until it closed in October.

South Shields is one of 50 town centres across the UK, bidding for a slice of a £675 million government fund which has been designated to help high streets thrive.

Councillor John Anglin, Lead Member for Regeneration and Economy, said: “It’s a shame that the TUI store is closing and this is another statement as to how retail is being affected in town centres throughout the whole country.”

He continued: “We hope that the programme that we are looking at to regain footfall and spending in the town centre, but especially in King Street, will prove successful.

“We are applying for a major grant and are in the top 40 out of all the boroughs in England. We hope with that money we will be able to change the flow in King Street and see more people living there, more offices and more shops.”