When a Highland couple decided to launch an Inverness travel agents a decade ago, it was set up at a spare desk in an office.
However, a £35,000 cruise ship booking changed everything for Murray Travel.
Scott Murray and wife Sarah are the brains behind the business, which now has four branches including its one in Strothers Lane.
The 30-strong team also run premises in Forres and Elgin, as well as their most recent addition in Nairn.
Travelling to the top
Scott, who also owns Inverness hospitality business Cru Holdings, had previously had a couple of poor experiences with travel agencies.
Therefore, when deciding to set up his own with Sarah, they knew it had to have a unique and personalised approach.
Scott said: “We thought why don’t we apply ourselves in a new industry and see how it goes.
“The company was originally run off a spare desk in the office and we didn’t expect it to do too much. As long as it supplied a salary for Sarah.
“The real turning point came when we were sat at a hotel in Thailand by the pool enjoying a nice cold bottle of beer.
“We confirmed a £35,000 cruise booking and that’s when I realised this maybe has more legs than we thought.”
The bookings kept coming for Murray Travel, and so it moved to its own purpose-built space at Beechwood Business Park.
He added: “The first space was designed like an executive lounge at an airport, with an open bar and relaxed atmosphere.
“When we needed a larger space we took on the Strothers Lane unit in Inverness in 2019 and went from 650 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft.
“For me, I wanted to have a ‘wow’ premises. So we built event spaces in it and designed it to inspire.”
Murray Travel ‘making sure people get the right holiday’
Scott said the focus of Murray Travel is make sure people get the personalised holiday experience they deserve.
He said: “There’s a huge benefit to the experience of our team, there’s only so much you can find out online. We have travelled and so can show you the receipts.
“As you start to spend more money on holidays, you want to be able to look someone in the eye and trust them.
“So when you first walk through the door, our staff get to know you and use that information to get the best options.
“For us it’s not about getting customers through the door once, we want people to feel comfortable in booking all their travel through us.
“We sort everything from your hotel and airline needs and also check your passports and visas are all in date.
“While on holiday, we have support available in case anything isn’t right and we will deal with that.
“Finally, once someone is home we like to catch up, get some feedback on the experience and keep the relationship going.
“A lot of our customers tend to become friends with the team and now go out for lunch together. It’s much more than just a transaction.”
Fight or flight
The travel industry was hit hard by Covid and Murray Travel wasn’t immune to the adversity.
Scott and Sarah had several conversations about how long the business could survive, or if it was time to shut up shop.
However, in the end, the pair chose to keep going and from there the business took off some more.
Scott said: “We were open in Inverness for a grand total of one day of trading before Covid sent everyone home.
“Things were tough as no sales were coming in and there were a lot of refunds to sort – which also meant we had salaries to pay.
“We kept reviewing things and actually got a phone call from a few other local agencies asking if we would buy them over.”
Scott and Sarah already had quite a task on their hands, but decided to take the risk and hope it paid off in the future.
“If everything was to go wrong, it would be regardless of this decision, so we said yes.
“As we came out of lockdown, we started to open other branches, in Forres and Elgin, and then last year in Nairn.”
There are no current plans for Murray Travel to add more branches as it focuses on its quality of product.
However, Scott said if the right opportunity came up, it would always be considered.
“Never say never,” he said.
Conversation