The annual Barrhead Travel Conference officially kicked off yesterday (29th September), amid the stunning backdrop of Dubrovnik, Croatia, taking place in Hotel Dubrovnik Palace until 1st October 2025. NI Travel News’ Erin English is in attendance at this year’s conference, which is themed “Innovate and Elevate”. This outlines the company’s plans to elevate growth and development throughout 2026.
Opening up this year’s conference was Nicki Tempest Mitchell, Managing Director of Barrhead Travel Group, who reflected upon the pledge made at the company’s 2024 conference in Ibiza, the pledge to ‘thrive within 2025.’
In 2025, Barrhead Travel celebrated its 50th anniversary.
In Tempest-Mitchell’s opening speech, she remarked upon the success of Barrhead Newtownabbey branch, highlighting that the branch “has gone from strength to strength, achieving its full goal by the end of Q1.”
Further stating that “its opening was just before the all important peaks which was a perfect Segway for a strong performance.”
In addition, Tempest-Mitchell expressed excitement for further expansion within the Northern Irish market with the recently opened new store in Craigavon’s Rushmere Shopping Centre.
Honing in on the conference’s theme of innovation and elevation, Barrhead Travel’s Managing Director highlighted the company’s aims to be “laser-focused on delivering innovation” in a bid to increase “stand-out within the marketplace.”
Looking forward into 2026, Barrhead Travel’s sights are set on utilising innovative technology, continuing investment into the retail model, elevating training and development, and a re-brand of marketing and customer communications.
Nicki Tempest-Mitchell outlined how Barrhead Travel was on-track for “another productive year” in 2026 with sales currently up 16% when compared with last year’s figures.
In a bid to “future-proof” operations, Barrhead Travel Group are set to launch a brand-new customer app in Q1, making the company’s debut into the app world.
Speaking about the launch of a new Barrhead Travel App, Nicki Tempest Mitchell stated the development of an app will “underpin service,” and will elevate “new client acquisition for branches, call centres, and homeworkers.” With emphasis on the future generation of customers who value technology as a “base-line expectation.”
The new app will allow customers to manage balance payments, download customer documentation, and send push notification updates to customers.
Plans for an upcoming rebrand were also outlined, with full details set to be revealed in December. Nicki Tempest-Michael highlighted how the new plans are “deeply rooted in Barrhead Travel’s identity,” but will outline “a clear path for the future” set to embed the company “deeper into our local communities and our customers.”
Details of the 2026 Barrhead Travel Group Conference were also unveiled. With the 2026 conference taking place from 1st October 2026 at Hotel Dino in Baveno, Italy.
