How BIDtravel, a Tourism-Related Business is Coping with the Pandemic

Juan Díaz, CEO & founder, Viajes BIDtravel tells us how the Spanish tour operator specializes in organized trips. 

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

Juan Díaz: I am doing fine, thanks. So far, so good, luckily we have very low COVID issues in my province (Asturias, northern Spain).

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Viajes BIDtravel.

Juan Díaz: After pivoting from many roles, I finally decided I could do something new in the tourism industry.

How does Viajes BIDtravel innovate?

Juan Díaz: Our innovation is based on disrupting technology investments and always checking for the agile process, what we called Kaizen philosophy.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Juan Díaz: Very much, the tourism situation has been critical for more than a year now. Our business is on the floor of the boxing mat.

Luckily and because we are a travel agency/tour operator, we do not hold any stock that can expire, so we can cut costs and remain on a stand-by basis.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned?

Juan Díaz: I bet for my team, and so far I am keeping all the workers on the company, despite because of the situation, not the whole staff is working actively.

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Juan Díaz: We invested in Salesforce and its marketing suite; this helped us to deliver a much closer relationship with our customers.

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

Juan Díaz: Not so far. Government just lent money, but it must be returned once this is over.

Your final thoughts?

Juan Díaz: I appreciate your interest and would love to see this published.

I wish you good luck and good health. It is just a matter of time that we all get the vaccine and can retake our lives where we left them, with more or fewer scars.

Your website?

https://www.bidtravel.es/