Ukrainian entrepreneur launches UK agency Grand Horizons Travel

A Ukrainian travel agent has set up her own business through the Travel Trust Association (TTA) after gaining experience in an independent shop in Somerset.

Olena Barabolia, who moved from Odessa to the UK through the Homes for Ukraine scheme in May 2022, founded Grand Horizons Travel in April.

She became a TTA member in September and now aims to attract Ukrainian and eastern European clients as well as other UK residents.

“I’ll be happy when I sell my first holidays to British people,” said Barabolia, who lives in Canterbury with her two teenage daughters.

After the Russia-Ukraine war began, following Russia’s invasion, the family moved in with a UK host family in Chard, Somerset.

“It was the most difficult decision of my life, but I had to take responsibility for my children’s lives or live under missile attack,” she said.

When Barabolia moved to the UK, she knew only basic English but she has attended language classes at Taunton College and has enrolled in a course at Canterbury College since relocating to the Kent city.

She has also been accepted onto a three-year business management and economics degree course at Canterbury Christ Church University, where she is currently undertaking a foundation year.

“I had a degree from Ukraine, but it’s worth nothing here. I need to start from scratch,” she said, adding that she will spend 12 hours a week at university as well as running her agency.

When she first moved to Britain, she gained an understanding of the UK market by working at Dave Criddle Travel, in Taunton, where she was one of three agents employed in the shop.

On relocating to Canterbury, she decided it was time to draw on her experience of running an agency in Odessa where she led a team of seven.

She hopes to build a client base through social media as well as word of mouth, based on the belief that people from Ukraine and other eastern Europe countries would ideally like to speak in their native language when booking holidays.

She anticipates most demand will be for Spain, Italy and Greece, but she has set herself the target of broadening people’s interests.

“I would like to widen my customers’ experiences and I’ve already had a request for the Maldives,” she said.

She is currently in the process of creating a bookable website and would like to recruit staff in the future.