Barrhead Travel marks 50 years with celebration in Glasgow
Barrhead Travel brought together more than 200 colleagues, industry partners and suppliers for a special celebration at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on 12 June, marking half a century since the company was founded.
From its beginnings as a single high-street shop in the Glasgow suburb of Barrhead, the business has grown into one of the UK’s largest independent travel groups.
The evening provided an opportunity to reflect on five decades of milestones, with speeches from president Jacqueline Dobson, managing director Nicki Tempest-Mitchell, and guest speaker Lynn Narraway, UK and EMEA vice president at Seabourn.
Dobson, who is celebrating her own 25th anniversary with the firm this year, spoke about Barrhead Travel’s people-first approach.
She credited the team for delivering “record-breaking results over the past two years” and described them as the constant force driving the business forward through every crisis.
She also reflected on the vision of the company’s founder, the late Bill Munro, who passed away last year.
In 1975, frustrated by travel agencies closing early and at weekends, Munro spotted a gap in the market and opened a small shop that would trade “six days a week until 7pm”.
Barrhead Travel soon expanded into “a true seven-day operation” by remaining open on Sundays too – an approach that Dobson described as setting the pace for high-street travel retail.
The birthday celebrations were also a chance to look back at Barrhead Travel’s resilience and forward-thinking approach to selling travel.
Dobson noted how Barrhead embraced early digital change in the 1990s by launching one of the first high-street travel websites, calling it a turning point for the company.
Guest speaker Lynn Narraway also drew on Barrhead Travel’s history, contrasting the “cardboard files and paper clips” of the early days with a business now comprising 50 locations across the UK, as well as its homeworking division, Brilliant Travel, The Cruise Specialists, and CruiseDirect.
Narraway also described Barrhead Travel as a reflection of the best qualities in the travel industry – people-focused, resilient and ever-evolving.
