Luxury tour operator If Only is to boost the number of staff in its Glasgow reservations team as it asked agents to “bear with it” as demand increases.

The operator reported a “huge increase in demand” in recent weeks and said in a statement: “[We are] working tirelessly and wish to assure our agents that we will get to all incoming calls and emails so please bear with us.

“We are currently placing all our resources into our frontline sales team to ensure we are getting to agents’ calls and enquiries as quickly as possible in the short term before welcoming new staff members in the coming weeks.”

General manager Gordon McCreadie said: “We are delighted to be now in the position of employing new staff and bringing existing staff back, their knowledge is invaluable to us at this time and I’m looking forward to seeing them in the office.

“It’s been a tough 18 months for our industry and I’m thrilled to be in the position to be recruiting, a position just a few months, even weeks ago, I could never have imagined we would be in.”

McCreadie warned that spikes in calls at certain times of day would continue but said he hoped four new recruits due to start in the coming weeks would reduce wait times and help meet “unprecedented agent demand”.

He also warned of price rises due to demand, and urged agents to “be realistic with customers with regards to their budgets and emphasise the need to try get bookings confirmed”.