Amuda Goueli He is, without a doubt, one of the most charismatic members of the community of digital managers in our country. Born in Nubia (Egypt)on a date that, according to what he tells us, is a “state secret”, Amuda has developed his professional career in Spain, managing to build from scratch an entire online tourism giant such as destiny.
A growth that has not been easy to achieve, and in which its commitment to the independence of the brand was key, despite receiving continuous calls from investors and potential buyers. «I have always defended the idea that when you start a business you cannot only be thinking about getting rich. If you do, when you face adversity – and you certainly will have to – you’ll just give up and start something else.”
seventeen years later Since its launch, Amuda is the CEO of , and has managed to become an indisputable reference in the sector, combining his activity at the head of the company with his work in the Adigital board of directors and an intense agenda of events, talks and conferences, in which he makes all his experience, both professional and vital, available to the public.
To learn a little more about him, about his career and his future plans, we have spoken with Amuda Goueli.
Interview with Amuda Goueli, CEO and Co-founder of Destinia
It’s been 17 years since you created Destinia. At that time, eCommerce was something very residual, there were no social networks and the mobile was… brick format. How do you remember that time before the birth of Destinia? Why did you decide to create it?
Well if I look back everything that my partner (Ian Webber) and I have managed to build over the years is a miracle.
It is impossible to forget the beginnings: when we bet everything we had that the internet would be a revolution, as it has been; of the complaints from hoteliers who then did not want to see their hotel online; of having to build a business model that did not exist then; from the first ad… When we started the Internet generated fear, today we see how ecommerce grows exponentially and unstoppably.
Why did we create it? Because she was a natural way of combine two passions: travel and technology We wanted to make traveling easy and accessible for everyone.
Once it was launched, how were the first months? Was there a moment when you thought that Destinia was not going to get ahead?
There was many sleepless nights, as it cannot be less in every project that begins. And although we have made mistakes, I think that this has given us experience and never, not even in the worst of times, have I questioned the future of this project,
You have a presence in more than 90 countries. What is the profile of your users like? What are the main differences between users from different countries?
Well, the differences are many, from travel tastes to the way of shopping. For example, on average last year 34% of reservations were made from a mobile device. Well, this figure stands at 37% for the Spanish market and rises to 43% in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Cultural issues and forms of payment are essential if you want an online business to work. For example, to enter Iran we had to incorporate Shaparakwhich is the only payment method they have there because western credit cards don’t work.
How is the strategy of a company that operates in so many different markets coordinated? What is the main challenge?
In Iran, for example, we have our own office due to the peculiarity of the market. Most of them are managed from Spain. The biggest challenge is that they know your brand, that’s why we work with third parties that help us open the market. Then I would say that the key is to adapt as much as possible to their tastes and needs.
We work so that, in the medium term, 55% of revenues come from markets other than Spain.
What would you say is Destinia’s main competitive advantage? What do you do better than others?
I think tourism is one of the most competitive sectors and there are very good and very big players. I am not going to compare myself with Booking or Expedia. I think that we, thanks to constantly innovating, have been able to defend our position and grow.
Selling a hotel room is nothing different, that’s why we are working to end up being «the Amazon of travel »: that you can configure yourself a tailor-made trip. Where we invest the most is in innovation and technology, which are the magic wand to be able to succeed in this sector.
All online stores wait (and fear) the moment when a giant like Google, Facebook or Amazon enters their market niche. How do you assess this possibility in your case?
In this sector we are all competitors and allies at the same time. Everyone is already in this sector. But in the business of Facebook and Google it’s really advertising, let’s not forget this. With Amazon it is different. And you know what the saying goes: if you can not with your enemy, ally with him.
How do you see the moment that Airbnb is going through? Will its business model be definitively established despite the continuous legal battles in which it is immersed?
I don’t think it’s respectful to go in and assess the business model of others. I do believe that this door has been opened and I doubt that it will close because the client demands it. It will be necessary to regulate bringing interests closer together, looking out for the consumer and the citizen, but prohibiting in no case is the solution.
You have been in the digital/eCommerce sector for many years. Without a doubt, you are one of the references in this field in Spain. Looking back, how do you assess these years of the sector in our country? Did you imagine that it would evolve as it has?
I knew that the Internet was going to change everything but I never imagined that the speed of change was going to be as dizzying as now.
Imagine that you could travel back in time: what advice would you give to the Amuda of 2001?
Hmmm, I don’t know. Maybe I would tell myself don’t waste your time.
Let’s do a bit of futurology: what headline would you like to read in Marketing4eCommerce in a year?
That solves 95% of routine customer service procedures and we leave it to the managers to provide a better value-added service.
And a little more difficult: imagine that we take a leap forward in time: how do you imagine Destinia in 2023?
Different. I hope that by then she will be the little sister of the group, because we are betting a lot on the B2B part and becoming technology providers for third parties.
Amuda Goueli: quick quiz
- What is the first social network you open in the day? Twitter
- iOS or Android? Android
- App or website? Depends what for.
- In which eCommerce and how long ago did you make your last online purchase? amazon
- And it was? A book
- Last book read? The one I bought from Amazon:
- Recommend us a fiction series Black Mirror was recommended to me by a friend.
- What website have you come across lately that has surprised you for the better?
- What is your favorite thing to do that has nothing to do with digital? Read and travel.
- He recommended that we interview you. What do you think of his new stage in the Wallapop board? He is very smart and will surely know how to take everything he has learned in the world of tourism to revolutionize the retail business.
- Let’s spin a magic chain: Which acquaintance of yours (from another company) do you think we should interview? Why? A . He was a pioneer in digital marketing and also knew, when the time came, to make the leap to offline marketing without losing the essence of online knowledge. And he does everything right!
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