Oasis Travel temporarily closed all eight of its branches on Wednesday as a precaution during ongoing unrest in Belfast.
The agency shut its doors across all stores at around 12:30pm following a second night of disorder in the city, with concerns raised around staff travelling home due to public transport disruption.
The agency, which operates in Belfast, Bangor, Holywood, Hillsborough and Warrenpoint, confirmed all branches reopened on Thursday morning and are now trading as normal.
Agents from Oasis Travel, who worked from home yesterday, said the closure was ‘a bit of a pain’ but added that staff safety had to come first.
They said customers were still visiting branches up until closing time on Wednesday, and that teams continued working from home for the rest of the day.
According to staff, the main impact was the loss of walk-in trade, while bookings and enquiries continued to be handled remotely and remained strong.
Other travel agencies in Belfast have reported limited disruption overall despite ongoing unrest in parts of the city.
Belfast-based Travel Solutions said it continued trading normally throughout the unrest.
Operations director Julie Magill told Travel Gossip: “We are trading as normal and it has not had any impact on business.”
Violence in parts of Belfast earlier this week followed protests linked to an alleged knife attack in north Belfast. Vehicles, buses and buildings were set alight, roads were blocked, and several arrests were made during two nights of disorder, with 12 police officers injured and 16 people arrested.
More officers have since been deployed in the city, and public transport was suspended across Northern Ireland during the disruption.
