Today we interview Eva Maria Fuentes, an example of a brave, strong and enterprising woman. Eva has two businesses, a travel agency born in 2018 and an online clothing store in the wake of the pandemic. Despite her difficult personal situation, she decided to undertake and even after a pandemic she is still at the bottom of the barrel with her businesses and with three young children!
When she started this adventure, Eva decided to trust Anda and domicile her business with us as well as make use of the rooms to serve her customers.
1. Tell us a little about yourself and your career:
I always had clear that I wanted to study tourism, I graduated in Tourism Companies and Activities, and since I was 20 years old still finishing the career I started working in Travel Agencies. I love dealing with customers, sales and everything related to travel and to sell illusions and unforgettable memories, since 90% of the cases the reasons for travel are usually for pleasure.
As I gained experience in this sector, both with individuals and groups, while building a portfolio of clients, I realized that I could create my own business after 20 years working for others. My family situation was not the easiest, divorced and mother of three children, the youngest being 2 years old. In 2018, I took the plunge to open my own travel agency, happy with the step taken, until today.
2. What is your travel agency like?
Grantours’ is a Wholesale-Retail Travel Agency, dynamic, flexible and very adapted to current needs. I was lucky to find Anda Cowork, a space that adapted perfectly to my needs and where I have my business address.
The fact that we are a wholesale-retail agency, allows us to make travel packages, combined between several cities and special circuits for groups, groups or associations, whether national, international or intercontinental. Crossing the Spanish market and offering our product to other countries such as Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Grantours’ organizes tailor-made trips, either with family, friends, incentives, adventure travel, honeymoon, study trips, end of career, Senior … to any destination and anywhere in the world. We provide both online and face-to-face service, if required by the client. We are very versatile.
Our philosophy is to provide a QUALITY service at the best price, based on personalization and direct contact with the client using the latest technologies at our disposal.
3. How has the pandemic affected your travel agency?
Since its opening, we have not stopped growing until the fateful pandemic that has fully affected the entire sector. Taking into account the impossibility of being able to travel with the confinement suffered, we joined the return of the trips contracted even in 2019 with our commissions already collected, that is, not only we have not generated income, but we have also had to return our profits from the work already closed in the previous year in view of the trips in 2020.
If you add to this the fact that the companies did not return the money of our passengers, hotels and tour operators, the problem has been growing.
Fortunately and with our customers, the most valuable asset of any business, full of patience, we have managed to reimburse a large part of the amount. We have worked all this time to get our customers out of countries where they were trapped by border closures, making up to three stopovers to reach Spain, endless hours on the phone with the airlines saturated and without remuneration. It has been a real nightmare.
Today and with the end of the state of alarm ‘Grantours’ remains open, standing, and happy to be able to make reservations, because people want to travel need to travel and here we are up to date with the best deals to continue our business, which never closed, but if you endured some expenses with little help from our government.
4. And in the midst of this panorama, you decided to open a new business?
Yes, the Evicci project. Given the complicated situation that the agency sector was going through, and facing expenses without income, Evicci, my new online clothing project, was born. I started to investigate suppliers, to create my brand, my website www.evicci.es, my own labels…. I have always loved the fashion world and I saw it easy. Just before the second perimeter closure (in October) I already made my first investment in clothing, moving to personally see the fabric and the fabric, taking the photos myself to my model to show the collections on social networks and from there grow little by little.
5. Did you think it could change your life all at once?
I guess no one ever imagined going through such an unpleasant historical moment as this pandemic, which has turned everything upside down, but within what it has been, it has generated a new business for me personally that I never thought I would have before.
Now I will continue working day by day in my projects and business that motivate me so much.
Thank you Eva and congratulations for everything you have achieved!