A delegation from Scottish agency chain Barrhead Travel flew to the US for meetings with executives from parent company Travel Leaders Group.
The sale of Barrhead Travel, which has more than 70 retail outlets across the UK, was completed at the end of February with the senior leadership team remaining in place.
Barrhead’s president Sharon Munro, managing director Jacqueline Dobson, operations director Julie Taylor, head of business development Caroline Donaldson and cruise and Canada director Catriona Parsons travelled to Dallas and Washington for a series of meetings where they discussed innovations in technology, training, marketing strategy and their franchise models.
The Barrhead delegation also spent time with Nexion, Travel Leaders Group’s host agency, sharing best practices and opportunities for advancement in technology for Barrhead Travel’s own homeworking and managed service travel partners (MSTP) division Brilliant Travel.
Barrhead shared a demo of its in-house Intranet system, Nevis, which was built exclusively for Barrhead Travel in 2007 by a former travel agent.
Sharon Munro said: “Meeting with the Travel Leaders Group team in the USA last month reinforced the synergies and opportunities for collaboration between both businesses in terms of culture and people, and systems and technology.
“In particular, their website technology and expertise in specialist areas complement our own strengths and innovations; we are also sharing some of our own custom-built technology with their team. We already feel very much a part of the TLG family and are really excited to move forward into the future, working together to grow our business within the UK.”
Travel Leaders Group chief executive, Ninan Chacko, CTC, added: “We had a series of very productive meetings where we shared best practices, technology and CRM solutions. We identified substantial opportunities to create synergies in the areas of technology, marketing, training, supplier relationships, cruise sales, hotel sales and more.
“We have short term, mid-term and long-term plans in the works to collaborate and take advantage of all of the opportunities to innovate and grow our businesses and our position in the marketplace. We look forward to exciting times ahead.”
Barrhead Travel opened its latest store, in Southampton, earlier this week.