Conquest Vacations Shuts Down

BRENT JANG

Globe and Mail Update

April 15, 2009 at 1:29 PM EDT

One of Canada's largest tour operators, Conquest Vacations Inc., shut down Wednesday after 37 years in business, blaming slow sales and cutthroat pricing in the industry.

“Conquest Vacations regrets the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to cessation of its operations,” the company said in a statement.

“Unfortunately this has been a result of overcapacity and price war among the major tour operators, unrealistic and unreasonable demands by the credit-card processing companies, credit squeeze and economic turmoil in recent months.”

Despite many discounted tours during the recession, consumers failed to flock to vacation packages even as companies flooded the market with new offerings, analysts say.