Murray Travel is set to celebrate its 10th birthday with a gala in Scotland this week, four years after taking a ‘risk’ that ultimately saved the company.
To be held at The Sun Dancer restaurant in Nairn, the event will host 110 clients and 20 suppliers as a thank you for their support over the past decade. Guests can expect live music, discounted rates to stay at the Muthu Newton Hotel, and a seven-course tasting menu of international flavours.
Having originated in 2014 as a ‘side hustle’ for Scott Murray and his partner Sarah, the business today consists of four branches.
“It was originally set up as a side hustle for my partner and I to spend more time together!” Murray says. “We already had a hospitality company so we wondered if we could apply the hospitality ethos to the travel model.”
And it seemed they could, as Murray Travel is widely known as one of Scotland’s leading luxury travel agencies. It even won the Luxury Travel Agency of the Year (sole store) at the TTG Luxury Travel Awards 2022 and 2024, having impressed the judges with its original Inverness branch in particular.
But while Murray Travel is a top player on the luxury travel scene today, its road to success hasn’t always been easy. Like many others in the industry, business was sorely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Just a few months after opening our flagship shop in Inverness in 2020, we thought it could be the end,” Murray told TTG Luxury. “It was all refunds and no bookings, and we had salaries to pay.” While he and Sarah weren’t ready to give up on the company, they knew they had to be realistic about its future.
“We thought, ‘If we’re going to go down anyway, what difference does it make?”
“We hadn’t thrown in the towel, but we were mentally preparing ourselves for things to go wrong,” he explains. It was at this uncertain time that Scott and Sarah decided to take a major gamble, by committing to more work, rather than less.
“We got a call from another travel company that was looking to divest branches from their portfolio, and they asked if we wanted to take on their further bookings,” he recalls. “We thought, ‘If we’re going to go down anyway, what difference does it make?”
Despite Scotland’s enforcement of yet another lockdown in January 2021, the tide gradually began to turn in Murray Travel’s favour. With many clients desperate to travel after nearly a year of restrictions, booking enquiries slowly but surely increased.
“We noticed there was such a demand for holidays around this time,” Scott recalls. “We were riding the wave, and in the next couple of years, we opened two more branches in Forres and Nairn.”
Looking back, Scott believes that it was the “rock bottom” of the pandemic that, ironically, led the company to expand.
“There was no lower we could have dropped,” he said. “Everything was out of our control at this time. But it really made us realise, if you don’t do it, you’re always going to wonder, what if I did?”
The risk paid off, and today, Murray Travel is a far cry from the small attic consultation room it was in 2014. Today, it comprises 30 employees across its four upmarket stores, all of which specialise in detailed itineraries with a bespoke service.
It is currently looking to recruit a head of cruise, an entirely new position that will oversee the growing demand for cruising from its clients. With another member of the team set to retire next year, it is also seeking to hire a new travel advisor.
As for opening a fifth store, Scott says that Murray Travel will “never say never” but has no immediate plans to expand.
“As I get older, I get more risk-adverse,” he admits. “It’s not just what I want, we have a team of 30 and they also rely on the business being successful. We’re comfortable with where we are.”
