Glasgow-based Barrhead Travel has reported a surge in bookings for this year's extra May bank holiday, with Mediterranean cruises most in demand.
The additional long weekend for the King's Coronation on May 8 has led to a 55 per cent increase in bookings compared to the same period in 2019. May is currently the Glasgow-based agency's third-top month for getaways, behind the traditionally booming summer months of June and July.
The boost in bookings follows a "record-breaking" Easter at Barrhead Travel, headed by president Jacqueline Dobson. She said it was "interesting" to see how many people are seizing upon the extra holiday for the King's Coronation after only being announced late last year.
“The top durations across this bank holiday period are mainly seven nights or longer – so it looks like people have decided to tie in their annual leave and take a long trip," she said.
READ MORE: Barrhead reports record bookings as customers seek help with budgeting
"The fact that we’re seeing long-haul destinations such as Canada amongst the most sought-after places is a sign that holidaymakers are keen to tick off long-awaited bucket list trips."
Barrhead, which is part of US-based Internova Travel Group, said Med cruises out of Southampton are in the most demand for the additional May break. This is followed by bookings to Mallorca, Tenerife, Costa Blanca, Florida and Canada.
In January the group reported its best-ever start to the year, with customers increasingly seeking guidance from travel agents on how best to budget amid the cost-of-living crisis.
READ MORE: Barrhead Travel sees record bookings for holidays
Last month the group celebrated the opening of its new flagship store in Glasgow, highlighting expectations of further job creation as travel demand has soared with the end of pandemic restrictions. The 4,000sq ft site includes a dedicated hub for Barrhead’s specialist sales divisions for cruise, long-haul and Canadian destinations.
Earlier this year the company also re-located its headquarters from Glasgow's Oswald Street to nearby St Vincent Place. Founded in 1975, the company now has more than 85 retail outlets throughout the UK.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here