Barrhead Travel is to create a separate touring and adventure sales division and increase its focus on weddings, honeymoons, ski and luxury holidays through its branches.
The company is recruiting a four‑strong team of touring and adventure specialists, due to be in place by the end of this year.
The team will comprise experts in touring and adventure working from home, who will be fed enquiries from online, social media and events. They will also take on more complex, specialist bookings from Barrhead’s high street stores where needed.
Sales and marketing director Nicki Tempest-Mitchell said the new division would complement sales of touring and adventure holidays through Barrhead’s 51 high street branches and fill a gap in the market as demand for this type of trip increases. The team will work closely with trade body the Association of Touring & Adventure Suppliers (Atas).
She said: “We feel now is the right time to look at this. This will be a dedicated team, 100% focused on selling touring and adventure holidays, who will run events to attract customers to the brand.
“They are being recruited based on their expertise and will work closely with Atas suppliers.”
Currently touring and adventure sales account for only about 1% of Barrhead’s sales.
The group is also planning a heightened focus on ski, wedding, honeymoon and luxury holidays with more frequent, dedicated promotions to drive higher volumes of sales through branches.
“We are working with our suppliers and we are committed to doing a lot more training in these areas,” added Tempest-Mitchell. “We want to grow [our presence] in the weddings, luxury and ski space.”
The company revealed it is also embarking on a customer segmentation project in 2023 to develop more detailed client profiles to help the agency target the right holidaymakers with the right products and expand its existing customer base.
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