Top Cruise Agency 2024 - Barrhead Travel

TOP CRUISE AGENCY 2024
Barrhead Travel

With more than 90 branches and almost 550 staff across the UK, Barrhead Travel is one of the UK’s largest agency chains – and on a mission to make cruise holidays mainstream. With the sector a rapidly increasing part of its business, Barrhead has used its scale to its advantage in the past year, partnering with a number of major brands to make cruising more enticing to customers and enhance staff knowledge and expertise. One such campaign involved partnering with Virgin Voyages to bring more than 250 team members onboard to experience its adults-only product, and as a result massively increasing business year-on-year. Elsewhere, honing in on another part of the industry, river cruise champions have been selected in all branches to give customers specialist advice, and a new dedicated social media team is helping to service more cruise enquiries. When it comes to spreading the good news about cruise, Barrhead produced more than 600 pieces of print marketing in the past year and made cruise holidays an important focus of its “Massive Holiday Sale” and “Save on Summer” TV campaigns featured on STV. The company even negotiated a slot on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway to give away a cruise as a prize. Barrhead has brought cruising to the attention of customers through more than 30 different events – from afternoon teas and cinema evening to bringing 160 clients onboard expedition yacht Scenic Eclipse in Belfast and Liverpool. While the business has been focused on its cruise ambitions, it has made sure to look after its team – improving its position in the “Best Companies to Work For” list and launching an employee menopause group among a number of initiatives. Making sure staff understand and can advise customers on the cruise sector’s environmental credentials is also an important focus, with company-wide sustainability training featuring multiple sessions on cruise.

barrheadtravel.co.uk