Ambassadors Group to close - The Spokesman Review
Ambassadors Group, the Spokane-based education travel company that arranges popular People-to-People tours, is closing and all of its employees will be laid off. No student trips will be canceled this year since the peak travel season is waning, the company said in a news release. CEO Philip Livingston said in an email that the company would have no comment beyond the news release. Ambassadors has operated People-to-People from Spokane since 1967, offering middle-school and high-school students the opportunity to travel the world and stay with local families. Ambassadors Group spun off from Ambassadors International in 2002 and handled student travel. the other company handled corporate group travel. But the company struggled when student travel plunged as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and global recession. It reported a 2014 loss of $17. 5 million, compared with a loss of $7. 1 million the previous year. “I suspect they were trying to sell (the company) and it couldn’t be done,” said Craig Hart, president and chief investment officer at Hart Capital Management in Spokane, a longtime local stock observer. Ambassadors’ news release said layoffs will begin on July 27. The company will be closed by the end of 2015. At the end of 2014 the company employed 155 people, according to its earnings report. Source: www.spokesman.com
