Jobless lawyers thrown holiday lifeline

Lawyers have been offered a discount on around-the-world trips if they prove they have been made redundant.

Dragoman, a Suffolk-based travel company, has spotted a gap in the market and said that it will give 10 per cent off its holidays for anybody showing their P45 to its sales reps.

Managing director Adam Dixon-Smith said: “Redundancies don’t have to be all negative. Most people who are traveling are having life-changing experiences. It is a good place for lawyers to reassess options and their career and what they want to do in life.”

According to Dragoman, since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, inquiries in the company’s holidays have surged by 20 per cent.

The company operates overland excursions between three weeks and 48 weeks. The longest adventure on its books starts in Helsinki, ends in Cape Town and goes via Beijing.

“It’s a self-contained rugged adventure through Russia, China, the ‘Stans’, the Middle East and Africa,” said Dixon-Smith.

He claimed that such a package, which would set the holiday-maker back £20,000, is potentially “very good value”.

The managing director speaks from experience. Having left his job as an advertising executive during the last recession in 1992, he went traveling for seven months. On his return he jettisoned advertising for a career in the travel industry.

He said that his company was “very approachable,” and rejected the notion that presenting proof of redundancy could be an unpleasant process for those involved.

“If people say: ‘I don’t want to show you my P45 and I’ve been made redundant’ - we’ll probably be flexible. We’re not in the business of humiliating anyone.”

The average age of participants is 41 years old and they tend to be professionals. “The number of lawyers on our trips probably reflect those in UK society at large,” stated Dixon-Smith.