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Barrhead Travel opens Cruise Centre of Excellence
Barrhead Travel has opened a new Cruise Centre of Excellence at one of its Edinburgh stores on Queensferry Road.
The move comes as trade body, Cruise Lines International Association, reports that record numbers of Brits are choosing to cruise, with figures revealing 1.78 million Brits opted for cruise holidays in 2015.
Barrhead Travel has invested £250,000 in the new centre and created 14 jobs including two modern apprenticeships in the area.
The travel provider, which now has 61 stores across the UK, has witnessed a sharp rise in cruise customers across the board and the new centre in Edinburgh, follows on the success of Barrhead Travel’s already popular cruise call centres in Glasgow, Falkirk and Cumbria.
Catriona Parsons, cruise director for Barrhead Travel, said: "More and more customers are choosing to cruise, and we have witnessed an increasing demand for cruise holidays in the last 12 months with bookings soaring by over 60%.
"It’s not just classic cruise destinations that we’re seeing demand for. We’re witnessing demand for a bit of everything from river cruising to sailings to the Caribbean and Antartica.
"We’ve chosen to open a dedicated Cruise Centre of Excellence because we recognise that while there are many customers who don’t mind interacting over the telephone, there is still a significant amount of people who would much prefer the opportunity to speak to a specialist cruise consultant face-to-face."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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