Barrhead Travel has officially launched its touring and adventure sales division to meet increasing demand for experiential and authentic trips.
The new division, announced last November at the agency group’s conference in Scotland, will be branded Touring & Adventure by Barrhead Travel.
It is staffed by a team of four experts in the sector, based remotely across the UK, and will service online, telephone and social media enquiries as well as operating as a support function for Barrhead’s shop network.
The team will be led by Natalie Greaves, formerly of STA Travel, who has worked for a decade within the touring and adventure sector. She is joined initially by three experienced travel consultants.
Barrhead plans to expand the team further, with more positions set to be created this year.
The division’s adventure arm will target younger customers, including students, school leavers and those travelling on a gap year, who are looking for immersive experiences that offer value-for-money when travelling.
The other product area, touring, will focus on tailormade and escorted tours, with higher price points and detailed itineraries to explore a destination’s culture.
Products for both areas will comprise a mix of tour operator packages and dynamically-packaged trips under Barrhead Travel’s Atol.
To ensure it has a broad mix of the right product available, Barrhead has worked with existing supplier partners, to maximise available product and training, and formed new partnerships.
Sales and marketing director Nicki Tempest-Mitchell said: “Touring and adventure has always been a popular sector of the market – particularly for those ticking off bucket-list trips.
“But now the traditional bucket-list has transitioned to a check-list and we’re seeing travellers seek that sense of adventure more frequently.
“Getting close to local communities is high on people’s agenda and it’s something that touring and adventure itineraries do very well.”
She added it was an opportunity for Barrhead to “enhance” its position in the market and grow its touring and adventure sales.
“Coming out of the pandemic, we realised travellers are demanding more from their experiences and are looking to experts to help them plan, particularly when it comes to complex trips,” she said, adding: “While we already had champions in place across our stores, creating a standalone division means we can have experts solely focussed on supporting, not just our customers, but the wider teams across the retail network. In turn, we expect this will generate UK-wide growth of touring and adventure sales during 2023.”
The division has its own branding and social media and has been launched as a new section on the group’s website.