Hispanic-Owned Travel Agency Emphasizes Trust as Key Selling Point
Photo Credit: Olga Ramudo, owner of Express Travel in Coral Gables, believes the agency needs to sell trust more than service for its largely Hispanic clientele. Express Travel
Skift Take
Express Travel, a travel agency serving a largely Hispanic customer base, has built an extensive clientele over the past 30 years. Relationships, community involvement, and intimate awareness of how its clients like to travel have a lot to do with its success.
When Olga Ramudo and her family fled Cuba after the revolution, she had no idea that 50 years later she would be at the helm of Express Travel, a South Florida agency that is among the nation’s top 250 Hispanic-owned businesses.
Along the way, Ramudo also emerged as an industry leader, partnering with the National Tour Association in the United States to create awareness about the Hispanic travel market. She would also win numerous accolades, including ASTA’s Travel Agent of the Year in 2011, and World Trade Center Miami Woman of the Year in 2012.
Based in Coral Gables, Florida, Express Travel has grown over the years to a staff of 30. Ramudo started the agency in 1989 with Cristina Jacomina and Rosa Maria Delgado, fellow part-time travel advisors who also came from Cuba as children. Jacomina is still active in the business, but Delgado has retired.
“We were gutsy, but we had
