Top South West Agency 2023 - Barrhead Travel, Plymouth

Top Agency in the South West 2023
Barrhead Travel, Plymouth

This travel agency, the third Barrhead store in the south of England, has only been open since 11 September 2021 but business is off to a flying start, with 75% of custom now local and glowing reviews regularly appearing on Plymouth Gossip Girls Facebook group of 21,000 followers.

Original team members Claire Ives and Laura Dodd are former Thomas Cook colleagues, and they recruited two more consultants and a Modern Apprentice, the driving force behind some light-hearted TikTok posts promoting the business. 

Making the most of a prime position on the way into Drake Circus shopping centre, the team have briefed neighbouring shops about Barrhead’s Affinity discounts their staff can access, handed out flyers to passers-by offering £50 holiday vouchers, and held four coffee and mince pie evenings for shoppers in December.

Examples of going above and beyond include the PowerPoint presentation Claire prepared for a customer to reveal a Christmas gift of a trip to Lapland to his children and the Iceland-inspired gift box given to a customer booking a surprise trip for his wife. 

Last summer, the team arranged a coach to Bristol airport for a wedding party of 25 and clocked some serious overtime helping fill charter planes with Rangers fans heading to a football match in Seville. The rapport created with customers is demonstrated by the effort one client made 
to source a personalised video message from a lifeguard star of Australian TV’s Bondi Rescue for Laura.

Gifts were collected at Christmas time and dropped off to children in hospital, and in January the team hosted 10 primary schoolchildren in the store, engaging them with a Where in the World? quiz.

Every Wednesday morning the team come together for a breakfast club and product training. Sustainable travel tips are offered, from the work the Sandals Foundation does with schools in the Caribbean to encouraging customers to use tuk-tuks in India. 

barrheadtravel.co.uk