BOOKINGS SURGE LEADS TO NEW CRUISE ACADEMY LAUNCHING
Barrhead Travel has confirmed the launch of its first ever Cruise Academy, a virtual learning and development programme to bolster plans that expand its existing cruise offering.
Pre-pandemic, cruise made up one third of Barrhead Travel’s business and the group said it expects interest to quickly grow, particularly with the rise of river, luxury and expedition cruise options.
The Cruise Academy is part of Barrhead Travel’s core Training Academy division which has three full-time trainers. Face-to-face training is complemented by an online Learning Lab which houses self-guided development opportunities from industry knowledge to skills training.
New and existing colleagues will be given the chance to expand their skill-set and professional repertoire with the opportunity to participate in various tailored sessions which will include bespoke native modules as well as sessions from key cruise partners. Furthermore, it opens the door to welcome more people into the Barrhead Travel team as they recruit new experts across the business.
Learning and development played a leading role for Barrhead Travel during the pandemic with the training team delivering over 9300 hours of facilitated sessions.
Jacqueline Dobson (pictured above), President of Barrhead Travel, said: “The idea for launching a dedicated Cruise Academy came from identifying the speed of recovery from the general cruise market and the subsequent increase in bookings post-pandemic.”
The scope of opportunity to connect more customers with experienced advisors is significant because cruise is such a vast product with so many options to choose from.
She added: “It’s integral to have someone who knows and fully understands cruise and we’re really excited to launch the academy to strengthen our position in the market and also create new opportunities for our team, both current and new.”
The inaugural Cruise Academy intake completed their first training programme in June and was made up of ten new recruits. As well as introducing the dedicated academy, the group advertised homeworking roles for cruise specialists to attract talent beyond its cruise call centre locations.
Earlier this year, Barrhead Travel announced a new recruitment drive with over 50 positions available across the country. In addition to an unrivalled training and development programme, employees have access to generous discounts on holidays with excellent progression opportunities.
Barrhead Travel has over 85 high street locations in the UK, and its team of experts take care of everything to give peace of mind, which is why the business believes everyone should ‘Book Human’ rather than using automated online search engines.
