Cruises within a click

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The stoppage of travel due to the pandemic ended up benefiting SoloCruceros.com, an online portal dedicated to searching, booking and managing this type of vacation. Its founder, Román Lopezosa, took advantage of the break to invest in technology, improve booking engines and enhance its positioning. “This has helped us emerge stronger from the covid crisis, we have gained market share and we have grown a lot this year,” he says from the newly opened offices in the center of Barcelona. The family business has recently opened another office in Madrid. “We have a lot of clients there and being physically present is important, although we are a digital company, people like to be able to come see you in the offices if necessary,” he says. The family business earned eight million euros last year and plans to grow to 60 employees They have also increased the telephone service part. “Cruises are a complex product, there is a wide variety of offers with very specific characteristics, the average ticket is high and clients prefer direct advice; Sales are usually closed by phone,” he adds. This investment in technology and customer service is behind, according to Lopezosa, its leap forward.

The company had a turnover of 3 million euros and had 10 employees. In 2022, even though the cruise season still started later than usual due to Covid and the war - in May - 8 million euros came in. By 2023, with the sector Job Function Email Database fully recovered, they hope to achieve sales of 16 million euros and increase the workforce from the current 40 employees to 60 distributed between the two offices in Barcelona and Madrid. Like the tourism sector in general, demand for cruises is also at an all-time high this year, which has driven up prices. “There is a lack of availability even though capacity is at its maximum, which is why shipping companies are betting on new and larger ships,” he points out.



A greater market share and workforce, they expect sales of 16 million in 2023 The type of client and the most requested destinations have also been standardized. If during Covid clients were almost exclusively looking for Mediterranean cruises, now the Baltic countries, the fjords of Norway and the Middle East are back. Cruise passengers, for their part, are mostly made up of families and couples of middle age and older. All SoloCruceros.com clients come from Spain and Latin America as the company specializes in the Spanish-speaking market. With the increase in staff and the two new offices, Lopezosa believes that the company is prepared to continue increasing quota and sales. A growth that they want to assume while maintaining the shareholding, without external investors.