Caitlan Grime founded her business, The Departure Hub, earlier this year and is currently renovating premises in her hometown of Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, with plans to open to customers on 4 July.
Grime told TTG she had begun her career in travel as an apprentice at Althams Travel, where she worked for seven years after leaving secondary school.
“I left at Christmas [December 2021] to go into villa rentals, I did that for a couple of months but decided I didn’t like doing that side of the industry. I missed the selling and building connections with the clients,” she said.
Grime explained how The Departure Hub, which launched online in April, was only meant to be a part-time job but it "took off straight away".
"It’s all happened really quickly. My parents spotted the premises in Oswaldtwistle and encouraged me to go for it. This move is more of massive risk, but I’ve decided to take the plunge."
The agency is a member of The Travel Trust Association and Grime said she was aiming to cater for traditional "bucket and spade" package holidays, which are most popular in her local area.
"I’m also trying to attract higher-end clients and do tailor-made packages, as well as the general Jet2holidays, easyJet holidays, Tui, Royal Caribbean, Kuoni and Sandals,” she added.
Grime said her shop would have "a modern design" and offer one-to-one service, describing how she wanted to "bring the personal side back to travel" and have an opportunity to build relationships with her customers.
“With travel agencies, sometimes it’s whoever is working on that day will deal with the client, I could book a person’s holiday and then somebody else could deal with them right until they travel – I wanted to do more, I want to book it, sort the tickets and if the customer needs anything they can ring me."
Grime added how she was planning to expand The Departure Hub team as the business developed.
“I’m not going to be hiring straight away, and at the minute it’s just me, but down the line it’s something I’m definitely going to do."
