Barrhead Travel celebrated a record start to February while it hosted its third annual Back to the Floor Day on Saturday (1st February).
Trading was up by 58 percent compared with the same Saturday last year, and finishing the weekend trading up 43 percent versus last year brought the strongest start to February in the group’s history. It comes after another record-breaking January with the group surpassing last year’s sales.
On Saturday, more than 60 of the agency’s senior management team, head office colleagues, and supplier partners went ‘Back to the Floor’ for the day to support retail teams across the country. The group reported consistent high footfall across its network which resulted in record-breaking sales for February.
January also surpassed Barrhead Travel’s record-breaking start to 2024. Despite disruption from Storm Eowyn which caused cancellations and the day-long closure of half its network, the group reported that sales and enquiries across all channels have outstripped 2024 figures.
Jacqueline Dobson, President of Internova Leisure, said: “We’re very pleased to be heading into February with a record-breaking January under our belts. We’ve also enjoyed one of the strongest starts to February we’ve ever seen which chimes with our early predictions that peaks would continue well into the first quarter of the year.
“Our customers are not willing to sacrifice or compromise on holidays, preferring to change their destination to maximise their budgets. All-inclusive holidays and cruising continue to be winners for the family market but bucket-list trips such as Japan, Canada and Australia have had sharp increases in interest.
“Although people are mostly planning ahead, our lates business is still strong and has accounted for almost 20 percent of new sales. Last-minute bookings are mainly for winter sun destinations like Canaries and Dubai so there’s clearly a desire to escape the weather back home. As half-term and Easter approached, I expect we’ll continue to see a similar pattern emerge.”
Barrhead Travel’s Back to the Floor Day was the group’s largest to date, and included Managing Director, Nicki Tempest-Mitchell, joining the Liverpool team on the sales floor while group President, Jacqueline Dobson, toured a number of the Scottish branches.
