Luisa, Travelgate’s CCO, is recognized as one of the most influential professionals in the global tourism industry. In 2025, she received this distinction from Sergestur in Spain. She brings solid experience in strategic collaborations with more than 1,000 companies worldwide.

Looking Back at 2025: Key moments and Learnings

1.1 When you look back at 2025, what are you most proud of in terms of what Travelgate achieved in the market?

Looking back at 2025, I’m proud of how Travelgate strengthened its role in the market. The Travelsoft acquisition positioned us as the hotel connectivity hub for the sister companies, which has opened up real synergies and much closer collaboration across the group.

The Partnership with HBX Group was another key milestone. Building our aggregator and helping them accelerate sourcing has been a major achievement. And the fact we’re now connecting them at around 5 TPS per week shows the impact is already very tangible.

I’m also very proud of the value we delivered to small and mid-size travel Partners. Our success-fee model, combined with a fully automated platform, gives these companies a way to scale without adding operational burden. With AI embedded in our processes, strong documentation, automated onboarding and certification, fast and reliable technical support, and a Customer Success team focused on revenue growth and connection optimization, we’ve become a genuinely effective scaling Partner for companies that are growing fast but don’t have large teams behind them.

Overall, 2025 was a year where we proved we can support Partners of all sizes, while building a more connected and resilient organisation internally.

1.2 “WTM was a key moment in 2025. What did that event confirm or change about your view of the market?”

WTM was a reality check in the best possible way. Talking to so many Partners in a few days confirmed three big themes:

• Everyone wants speed – faster onboarding, faster activations, faster changes in distribution strategy.
  
• Everyone needs reliability – the need for much better, all encompassing mapping solutions has been a major theme
  
• Everyone expects actionable data – not just dashboards, but insights that translate into revenue decisions.
  
  Those conversations gave us even more confidence that the direction we’re taking with our products and standards is exactly what the market needs.
  
  

1.3 What surprised you most about our Partners’ needs in 2025?

I was surprised by how similar the challenges are across very different companies.

Whether it’s a global group or a very niche player, the pain points keep repeating:

• too much complexity in mapping and maintenance,
  
• manual work around financial reconciliation,
  
• and the need to test new Partners without huge tech projects.
  
  That repetition is actually good news, because it means we can design scalable solutions—like common standards and reusable products—instead of solving the same problem 50 different ways.
  
  

1.4 What were the most important learnings you’re taking from 2025 into 2026?

First: standardization is no longer “nice to have”; it’s a competitive advantage.

Second: Partners don’t just buy technology—they buy confidence that what we promise will actually work in production.

And third: our own internal alignment is critical. When Product, Tech, Partnerships and Marketing move in sync, our impact in the market multiplies.

These learnings are shaping the way we’re planning 2026: fewer distractions, more focus on what truly moves the needle for our Partners. 

Shaping 2026: FITUR, CON-X and Product Innovation 

2.1 If you had to describe the story you want to tell at FITUR 2026 in one or two sentences, what would it be?

At FITUR 2026, our message is simple: Travelgate goes beyond hotel connectivity. We’re bringing the market real solutions—three layers of aggregation, a reconciliation API to reduce friction between Partners, deeper BI that drives action, and a marketplace enriched with tech like Mize’s Smart-rate, now available as a plug-and-play Travelgate app.

2.2 How do FITUR and CONX connect in your strategy for 2026?

FITUR is our homeground—it’s where we show the direction of travel for the ecosystem and connect with a wide audience in Spain and LATAM.

ConX is the physical version of what we build digitally — a celebration of our Partners, the travel industry, and the people behind it. It goes beyond Travelgate or Travelsoft; it’s about the community, the connection. It’s about creating the next chapter of travel, together.

2.3 Without revealing everything yet, can you give us a teaser of what’s coming from travelgate in 2026?

2026 is the year when a lot of work we’ve been doing “behind the scenes” becomes very visible to the market.

You’ll see three big directions:

• Our Store concept evolving – bringing third party solutions into Travelgate with the click of a button.
  
• Our standards, like FastX, maturing and being applied at scale to reduce friction in connectivity and mapping.
  
• solutions around Reconciliation, helping Partners bring more transparency and control in managing possible discrepancies in the booking flow.
  
• Mapping: we are working on a solution for non bookable content (NBC), a recurring theme in our conversations with our Partners.
  
  I don’t want to spoil the announcements, but the common theme is clear: less friction, more control, and faster time-to-value for our Partners.
  
  

2.4 What should Partners expect from Travelgate next year that maybe they didn’t see as strongly before?

Next year, Partners will see a Travelgate that’s far more intentional in how we support them. They’ll notice stronger product consistency, clearer value around aggregation, and cleaner operational processes — all aimed at reducing friction, not adding features for the sake of it.”

They’ll also see a more open ecosystem: more plugins, more integrations, more Partnerships with other tech companies who bring value to the industry . We’re moving from being ‘a connectivity provider’ to being a platform where Partners can activate the tools they need to run their business more efficiently.”

Finally, they’ll see more proactive engagement from our teams — not just solving issues, but helping Partners optimise their connections, grow revenue, and make better use of automation. The foundation is the same, but the execution will be sharper.” 

Leading the Future: Vision, Teams and Partner Success

3.1 How would you describe your vision for travelgate over the next few years?

Over the next few years, I see Travelgate cemented as the Partner of choice for enterprise companies that need a tech Partner who can move fast and deliver customized solutions without the usual complexity. At the same time, I see us growing as an open marketplace — a place where travel companies can access hotel connectivity and complementary solutions more efficiently than they could build on their own. It’s about speed, flexibility, and a very human, Partnership-driven approach that genuinely adds value.

 

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3.2 What kind of team do we need to make that vision a reality?

We need a team that is curious, data-driven and obsessed with our Partners’ outcomes.

People who are not afraid to challenge the status quo, who understand both the tech and the business side, and who can translate complexity into simple, actionable steps for our clients.

Culturally, I value transparency, accountability and collaboration. When those three are strong, the rest follows. 

 

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3.3 How do you see your role in building a solid team and delivering consistent results?

My role is to set a clear direction, remove obstacles, and give the team the context they need to make good decisions. I want people to feel safe to experiment, but also very accountable for the impact they create. Sustainable results don’t come from pressure — they come from focus, clarity, and a shared understanding of what success looks like for our Partners and for us. 

 

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3.4 What message would you like to leave to our Partners and to the team as we move into 2026?

To our Partners: thank you for trusting us and for pushing us to be better. 2026 will be about going further together—with clearer standards, smarter products and closer collaboration.

To the team: everything we’ve achieved comes from your work, your curiosity, and the way you’re always looking for ways to add value. We may be under 120 people, but what you deliver feels far bigger.