In 2019, Carla Tarrés, while preparing her honeymoon, observed that traditional travel agencies did not fit her tastes or needs and that, like her, people were increasingly opting for digital alternatives. "At that moment, these two factors came together: my personal need and a very powerful market opportunity" and, thus, she decided to undertake and found Hanaley. The objective Tarrés pursued with this new travel agency was to "digitize the traditional agency through technology to be more agile and efficient, but maintaining excellent service and personalized attention. The idea was to offer tailor-made long-distance trips, moving away from classic circuits and organized packages. After five years and more than a thousand organized trips, the company closes 2024 with a turnover of more than five million euros, 30% more than the previous year.
However, Hanaley's beginnings were not easy. Just one month after constituting the Barcelona-based company, in February 2020, the pandemic broke out and the tourism sector was one of the most affected. "There were many moments when we thought about throwing in the towel and not going forward," recalls Tarrés, CEO of Hanaley. Even so, they decided to bet on the business and take advantage of the opportunities that the circumstances offered them, hiring professionals from large travel agencies who were unemployed or on ERTE. "As restrictions were lifted, large travel agencies still could not sell new destinations because they first had to manage all cancellations, so we were among the first to be able to organize new trips to international destinations," explains Tarrés.
During the first years, their main clients were newlywed couples who organized their wedding trip, a type of client that still accounts for more than 40% of Hanaley's sales. Little by little, they consolidated and opened up to new types of clients such as families, and today more than a quarter of their sales are of this type. Only during this 2024, the agency has organized more than 400 tailor-made itineraries, with an average budget of between 12,000 and 13,000 euros for two people. Among the destinations, countries such as Japan, Tanzania, Maldives, Sri Lanka or Hawaii stand out ---a country that gave its name to the company with one of its paradisiacal bays.
With the aim of offering increasingly personalized trips, Haneley has become the first Spanish travel agency to incorporate artificial intelligence, with its virtual assistant LucIA. Trained by the company's staff ---which consists of 24 professionals---, the assistant is capable of offering tailored recommendations on itineraries, activities, and prices based on automated questions, as well as resolving any doubts that visitors to the website may have. This year, the company has also added strategic agreements with other travel agencies such as Exoticca.
Looking ahead to 2025, the company expects to accelerate and scale its growth with external capital, and is finalizing its first round of financing. Until now, the agency had been financed with capital contributed by the five initial partners, who invested a total of 29,000 euros. This year, the agency wants to take an important step in its trajectory and raise up to 1.2 million euros to invest in its own technology and incorporate artificial intelligence into the entire sales process, beyond the virtual assistant. With the capital raised in the round, they also expect to expand into new markets, with a primary focus on Latin America. The agency's travelers are still mostly domestic, although the company also operates in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and has started its first advertising investments in Mexico.
"We have a business that works and started with very few resources, and now we want it to scale with this capital but without forgetting our focus, which is to maintain personalized attention to make our clients' dreams come true," remarks Tarrés. The CEO emphasizes that no trip they organize is the same as the previous one because flights, accommodations, and activities are designed exclusively for each client, organized in collaboration with local producers and agents in each country where they operate.