Beleaguered holiday firm MyTravel, which operates the Going Places travel chain, today announced plans to axe 2,000 jobs from its workforce.

But company bosses said the majority of cuts would be from the worldwide workforce of more than 25,000 staff and not from regional UK stores.

MyTravel, which announced 700 job losses in February, operates four bases in York at Monks Cross, Feasegate, Ousegate and Piccadilly. A spokeswoman told the Evening Press that many of the job cuts would be achieved through natural wastage and voluntary redundancies with few travel agents forced to close.

Meanwhile, travel agents in York and North Yorkshire are reporting a downturn in bookings as cautious holiday makers stay closer to home. Travellers are shunning countries around the Middle East, such as Cyprus and Turkey, in favour of UK holidays, or breaks in nearby countries like France.

Gloria Bartram, managing director at Abbey Travel in Selby, said they had noticed trade slowing down in recent weeks.

"Cyprus trade is down, although there's no reason why people should not travel there," she said.

Eric Walton, partner at Acomb Travel, in York, said agents were facing difficult times. "According to our trade paper on Monday some agents are reporting that sales have dried up," he said.

But he thought travellers would return when the situation in the Middle East was resolved.

"At the end of the conflict there's going to be an upturn," he said.

"We have no need to take any drastic measures, we are strong enough to weather the storm."

Holidaymakers with children were being more cautious, said Linda Bateman, a director at Ripon Travel.

"There's definitely a downturn in the sort of traditional family package holidays. It seems to be that people don't really want to fly when they have got children," she said. I would say we've seen an upturn in UK holidays, and possibly France as well.

"I think the advice at the moment is to travel with caution."

Sean Tipton, from the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), confirmed bookings had fallen since the Iraq war started.

"In the run-up to war, sales were down 18 per cent in January and 15 per cent in February."

Updated: 11:08 Friday, April 04, 2003