A former homeworker has opened his own independent travel agency in the East Yorkshire market town of Beverley.
Karl Douglas has launched Beverley Travel in the Flemingate Shopping Centre, close to Beverley Minster – which features on the agency’s logo.
He has taken on six members of staff, three of whom previously worked at Thomas Cook.
The shop opened on Monday (January 6) and Douglas said the response from local people has been “phenomenal”.
He has a background in customer service so has designed the store with a modern, roomy layout.
“We wanted to move away from the traditional layout and ‘computer says no’ look,” he said.
“My team has been involved in the design – it is a collaborative effort to create a very visual environment with large destination images, and very few brochures.”
The agency has a receptionist to welcome customers and guide them to the right agent, so that staff don’t have to interrupt a consultation to greet people.
“We have a fantastic work ethic already, and there is no area of travel that we are weak on,” said Douglas.
“We have lots of experience, in business travel, leisure and cruise.”
The agency has joined Advantage Travel Partnership because “they ticked all the boxes for business and leisure”, said Douglas.
The agency has been featured in local newspapers, social media and online, and will send out 15,000 leaflets to promote its opening.
“The response on Facebook has been huge – the name is local and we have a loyal town of people supporting local businesses,” said Douglas.
He is funding the agency with savings and a business loan, and hopes the long hours and hard work will soon pay off.
“It has been a leap of faith but this is a more affluent part of East Yorkshire, and it is a growing town with very few empty retail units,” he added.
Pictured from left: Steph McInnes, Elaine Lees, Karl Douglas, Vicky Thompson, Lucy Thorp, Hannah Allison and Jackie Nicholls.