JACQUELINE Dobson has every right to be in an upbeat frame of mind.

The president of Barrhead Travel has seen her firm enjoy record months for January, February, and March, with bookings at Easter nearly 25 per cent above the corresponding period of 2019, and the outlook for summer looking especially bright.

Life at Barrhead, which has 85 stores around the UK, is incomparable now with the darkest days of the pandemic, when the travel world ground to a halt and thoughts of foreign holidays were placed firmly on the back burner as the pandemic unfolded.

Speaking in a bright and airy room at the company’s office on Glasgow’s Gordon Street, Ms Dobson said now that people are free to travel again, they are embracing the opportunity as never before. Customers are booking multiple holidays a year, and some are even extending vacations before they have even ended.

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Ms Dobson noted that one customer who recently went into a store to purchase currency booked four holidays while another arrived back at the airport following a trip with Barrhead and went straight to its store in Braehead to book another. “We are seeing multiple holidays being booked,” she said.

Pent-up demand and cash saved during lockdown are driving the market, along with the fact holidays overseas are broadly cheaper than staying at home – a key factor when the rate of inflation is running at more than 10 per cent.

“Holidaying in the UK is expensive, so to go overseas is great value for money,” Ms Dobson told The Herald. “There are a lot of good value-for-money holidays on offer just now, and that is really driving the market. With that, we also offer things like flexible payment plans so customers pay up their holiday. We give them a payment plan and they can pay it up over six months or 10 months, which helps them budget from that perspective.”

Ms Dobson, who joined Barrhead in 2000 and has spent the bulk of her career with the travel agent, said cruises continue to grow in popularity, with new ships regularly entering the market.

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Such holidays are not cheap but are perceived to offer value for money, she said. Much of the growth is coming from families because of the diversity of food, entertainment, and activities such holidays offer different generations, while there is also high demand for luxury and river cruises.

Popular destinations include Europe, “fly Med”, the Caribbean, and increasingly, the Middle East which took longer to reopen after Covid.

While cruises conjure images of lounging on decks, they also cater for the more adventurous. One cruise operators that Barrhead works with, Seabourn, offers tourists the chance to view sea life from a submarine in locations ranging such as Antarctica and Iceland. “It’s just out of this world,” Ms Dobson said.

She noted that a desire for new experiences is now high on the priority list for Barrhead customers. “Although we still have the good old favourites, people are wanting experiences, they are wanting to spend time with family, and that is so important. I think that is the most important thing [for them] rather than having a nice car.”

More broadly, the classic bucket and spade “Med beach” destinations of Majorca, Tenerife, and Turkey remain popular, and there is resurgent demand for the US.

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“A lot of the (US) airlines had not reinstated their flights, but we have now got airlines flying out of Scotland again, which is great,” Ms Dobson said. “Some have gone up to daily, some are double daily now again.

“Emirates are bringing their A380 into (Scotland), which is fantastic, and Qatar are going double daily out of Edinburgh to Doha. The world is your oyster from there – you can hit Australia, the Far East… which is really encouraging for the industry.”

Meanwhile Ms Dobson said the company will continue to invest in bricks and mortar retail outlets even though many people now book their holidays online.

Thirty of Barrhead's 85 physical stores are based in its native Scotland.

“We are a ‘book human’ business and we use technology to enhance the customer experience,” Ms Dobson said. “It is always human first, and we are seeing people coming back to travel agents because it has gone full circle.

“During Covid we obviously looked after our customers. We refunded every single customer whereas if you booked online [and] you booked your flight and accommodation [separately] that flight might not have gone, the hotelier still had that room so you would not get a refund.

"If you book with Barrhead, or agencies in general, as a package, if the flight doesn’t go you get a full refund. We have really seen a difference with people coming back.

“Also with Gen Zs, there are obviously time poor, and we are seeing a lot of them coming into store to book to get that advice from our consultants.”

The company has its own training academy through which staff can develop in-depth knowledge about different parts of the holiday market, such as cruises, and recently relaunched its modern apprenticeship programme. “These young people are just fantastic,” Ms Dobson said. “I was a trainee myself, and you come up through the ranks.”

The training opportunities provided by the company have helped it overcome a skills shortage that blighted the industry as it began to reopen following Covid restrictions.

“We are looking for a few positions, but we are not struggling to get people,” Ms Dobson added.

“We are finding a lot of people are coming back to the industry. There is obviously an issue out there, and I do think from a government perspective, especially from a modern apprentice perspective, that they can do more. That is something we are lobbying the government for.”

Ms Dobson, who has led Barrhead since it was acquired by US-based Travel Leaders Group in 2018, added: “There is not really any funding in Scotland, whereas in England it is different. There is not any funding really for modern apprentices, there’s not really a huge amount of courses in travel either.

"We work with the likes of Clyde College. We have got our own programme that they put them through, and they get a qualification at the end of it. Last year we trained two assessors, verifiers. They can now put these youngsters through the course, and they are qualified to give them the qualification at the end of it. We had to do that because there wasn’t anywhere else in Scotland.”

Q&A

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?

South Africa for pleasure – for the scenery, wildlife, excellent value for money and, of course, the wine! The USA for both business and pleasure as there’s just so much variety: from theme parks to skiing and from cities to beaches... you can combine different holiday or trips into one.

When you were a child, what was your ideal job? Why did it appeal?

It’s always been the travel industry! I wanted to be an air hostess so I could travel the world.

What was your biggest break in business?

Becoming president of Barrhead Travel

What was your worst moment in business?

Navigating the business through the pandemic when travel was at a standstill

Who do you most admire and why?

My parents. I admire them for bringing up four children while running a business at the same time. They’ve always given me great advice and guidance and have always been there when I needed them.

What book are you reading and what music are you listening to?

My playlist has a range of artists such as Lewis Capaldi, Take That, and Lady Gaga but my favourite band who are always on repeat are Ocean Colour Scene. I’m about to start reading the biography of Steve Jobs.