In this context, Travel2latam spoke with David Benítez, CEO of CocoA Content Cocktails, in charge of the H2H event “Human 2 human”, previously known as Perfect Travel.
What is the origin of this event?
The event arose during my time of organizing large fairs. I come from that world and 10 years ago I realized that it was something very impersonal, especially because of the political lobbying that exists. The human factor and getting to know a destination in a more natural way was difficult in large events. So, the idea is that there are meetings between two people who represent a company. That's where the “human to human” comes from. The business is done between two humans.
We create a format where the human can be himself, with the possibility of sharing synergies to see what business can be generated. It's fine to take the booking, fairs work very well for that, but what we want to do is generate trust between two humans and look for some type of connection between them through an experience or content that is relevant to both, in this case tourism, but it can be any type of event. That's the sharing factor.
Furthermore, we think that in the future in the tourism industry and any event industry in general, we have to think about how we contribute to local communities. At Cocoa we have the legacy program. Here in Lloret we are going to do an action and 10% of the profits from all Cocoa events will go to an NGO that distributes a social action in each destination. In Lloret we started with an association called ASPAC, but we want our legacy here to continue.
What is Cocoa?
Cocoa is a brand, the tax name is Content Cocktails, a content cocktail. We have a story behind, on a Cocoa farm in Ecuador, near Guayaquil, we met a girl named Ninfa, who inspired us to think "out of the box". So that's where the name Cocoa was born, which has to do with content cocktails, but it is also the inspiration for this story.
And if I'm not mistaken, the concept is Ibero-America, to attract people from America and combine them with people from Europe.
Correct. We believe that there is a lot of connection between the countries of Iberia, Spain and Portugal, with Latin American countries, and there is a very powerful Latin community worldwide. There is a lot of history and interest in Latin America about getting to know Iberia and its roots, and Iberia's interest in getting to know the countries of Latin America with all their cultural richness. We have seen this opportunity to meet in a relaxed way. That does not mean that in the future we can look for another Nordic region, or another industry with which we can share networking, which can be done in all types of industries.
What countries are participating?
In this first edition we have countries from Spain; Catalonia, Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Aragón and Andorra, and we also have Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Argentina. We have 70 participants fairly distributed for a first edition. The next one will be in Costa del Sol, from October 28 to 31, it will have more Andalusian flavor, obviously. Here it has more Catalan flavor, and the idea is that we can repeat these workshops every year on the same dates.
And in Latin America, do you have the idea of establishing an event?
Yes. We are planning and talking with several countries that are very interested in this concept because the human and sustainability factor resonates with them. They have to live off sustainability because that is the strong selling point for them. In 2025 we will have an event in Latin America and possibly in Portugal, but it has yet to be confirmed. It will be announced in the middle of the year.
What types of companies are interested in participating?
DMC's ( Integrating Tourist Agencies), destinations and cruises. In fact, we have spoken with companies that sell Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands and they have shown interest in other destinations. So above all the DMCs are interested in participating, and also the hospitality industry.