Barrhead announces launch of USA division at first-ever overseas conference

Barrhead USA division
By Linsey McNeill
04/10/2023
Home » Barrhead announces launch of USA division at first-ever overseas conference

Barrhead Travel has announced it will launch a standalone USA division following on from the success of its specialist Touring and Adventure division launched last year.

Speaking at the group’s first-ever overseas – and largest – conference, Sales and Marketing Director Nicki Tempest-Mitchell said adventure and touring sales were up 102% versus 2019.

Its adventure and touring division, led by Natalie Greaves with a team of four specialists based remotely, service online, telephone and social media enquiries as well as providing support to agency-based staff.

Nicki said a similar USA division will be launched next year by Barrhead, which is already seeing growth in travel to US gateways including New York, Orlando and Las Vegas.

Sales to Canada are also up 24%, which Nicki said was in part due to popular TV programmes, such as Race Across The World, whose Season 3 winners Tricia Sail and Cathie Rowe were guest speakers at the conference in Palma, Majorca.

Barrhead President Jacqueline Dobson (pictured) also confirmed at the conference that, following a ‘record breaking year’ in which bookings have leapfrogged 2019, the group will ‘restart its expansion programme’ in 2024.

Overall, Barrhead’s sales are up 26% this year with a rise in average per person spend of £683 and an increase in average group size from 2.4 to 2.6 people. The average length of stay is slightly down, however, from 9.78 days to 9.34.

Jacqueline also revealed the launch of a Barrhead Travel Leadership Academy to ‘nurture future leaders’, folllowing the relaunch of its apprenticeship programme last year, which Jacqueline said was ‘going from strength to strength despite the lack of support from the Government’.

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