An independent Cumbrian travel agency is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Cumbria Travel, which has stores in Whitehaven and Workington, first opened its doors in 2015 with just four members of staff.
It has since grown to have 27 employees including a social media team and has scooped over 23 awards for its excellence and high standard of service over the years.
But it all started with an idea cooked up while directors Tricia Rickerby and Leanne Miller, who both live in Whitehaven, were on a hen party together in 2014.
At first, Tricia wasn’t sure if it was an idea Leanne had in the heat of the moment, but the following January, the pair were opening their first store in Whitehaven together.
Tricia said: “I thought it was maybe just an idea she’d had while we were out on the town, but the next day she rang and said she was deadly serious!
“So when we first opened it was just me and Leanne and one full-time and one part-time member of staff. But by month four we’d hit what we set as our yearly target and every month of that year we had to recruit a new member of staff.
“Two years later we opened our second store in Dunmail Park and that just flew.”
Leanne and Tricia, who have 70 years of experience between them in the travel industry, decided to open physical stores to offer more personal travel agency services in West Cumbria.
Tricia said: “We wanted to bring that independent travel agents back into Whitehaven because it just gives customers more choice, for us, it’s always about what is best for them.
“We’ve just continued to build upon that and as we’ve grown it’s been word of mouth, offering good deals and giving customers a wide range of choice.
“But having the shops really works for us, people love the face to face service. We do have customers who book from all over the country, but we have lots of local customers who will message on our Facebook and then come in to book or do payments, and they love having that option.
“When we first opened, the aim was for us to have one shop to have more time with our families, which feels silly now because the business really does take over you!
“It’s only now that we have a big team that we work from home the majority of the time.”
With over 44,000 followers on Facebook alone, Tricia said that social media has been a key aspect of growing the business, and when Cumbria Travel first launched, it was one of the only agents actively using social media in the area at the time.
But the decision to focus more of their energy on social media came during Covid.
Tricia said: “During Covid we couldn’t furlough all our staff because we had millions of pounds worth of bookings that needed either amended or refunded.
“Most of our customers chose to amend it and put it off to the year after, but it got to the point where we had to close Carlisle, our third shop we opened in 2019, to protect the other two shops.
“What we then did instead was focus on social media and growing that team. But we have retained customers and staff from the Carlisle shop and we would have loved to keep it open, but it was just one of those things with Covid where we were paying out staff wages with no income.
“But we scraped through it and after that we’ve had our best years ever. It’s just been a whirlwind.
“Social media is huge for us, it drives business to shops via phone and email and each store has its own page that people message every day.
“Once we were out of Covid, people just wanted to travel, and not just one holiday, it was multiple holidays a year and a lot of city breaks as well as sunny holidays and people looking to go further afield.
“I think what Covid did was make people realise that life is short and there’s a big world out there to see.”
Tricia said the team’s business highlights over the years include scooping awards like the prestigious TTG Top Agency North West Award – of which the Dunmail Park store is back in the finals for this year.
She added: “It wasn’t until I was typing up a post to celebrate the 10 years for our Facebook that I realised how much we’d done.
“I typed it all out, saved it as a draft and got Katie our senior manager to read it and she was like you’ve made me cry, what an achievement!
“So I read it again and it wasn’t until I actually stopped and read it and saw all our awards listed that I realised what a major achievement it is.”
Tricia added that the team have expanded even further over the last year, which has allowed the business to open until 9pm on some days and open on Sundays to make services available seven days a week.
Cumbria Travel now offers everything from football tickets to short city breaks and quick getaways right up to luxury £10,000 or more holiday packages.
Tricia said Cumbria’s top destinations of choice include Tenerife, Turkey, Benidorm, Majorca and Florida. Other top sellers include Dubai and New York.
She added: “It’s just about being able to give customers the best choice of holidays at the price they can pay. It’s about having something for everyone and I think if you look after your staff and your customers, then you’re onto a winner.
“But I think our staff love getting excited with people and helping them find their holiday and choose the right one for them.
“Booking a holiday is an exciting thing, it’s an experience in itself and that’s what we aim for when they come into the store.”
