The president of ALSA, Jorge Cosmen, has celebrated the arrival of the company in the Canary Islands, a destination that he praised for its management of mobility in tourism, which follows a model that they want to "learn" and "replicate" in other communities in Spain.
As he detailed in his speech at the forum organized in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria by the Association for the Progress of Management, ALSA plans to create 1,600 jobs with a fleet of almost 800 vehicles.
Cosmen has acknowledged that ALSA has had "interest" in the Canary Islands for "a long time", which is why it recently purchased Grupo 1844 (Canary Bus), with which it enters the archipelago.
In his opinion, tourism in the islands works as "a chain of services in which mobility is fundamental" and that has been able to "consolidate, endure, sustain and improve" for more than 30 years.
"We have come to the Canary Islands to learn and collaborate with the administrations, with colleagues in the sector and operators" in order to "create an optimal playing field for society and for a socially, financially and economically sustainable company" through "a tourist mobility model that is exportable", he said.
The decision to enter the Canary Islands has been "premeditated and studied" within the strategy of "growing as an organization and by product" and within a model that has "a very high level of interaction" both in "a volume tourism that is still important and in segments focused on quality and value", he said.
The president of ALSA has warned that in the Canary Islands, as in other destinations, a "great pact on the territorial model to organize mobility" will be necessary, in a future in which he has confessed that he is concerned about congestion.
"I am afraid of traffic congestion, because it kills tourist destinations and cities", as has already happened in cities in
China, since "if it gets a reputation for being stuck and times cannot be predicted, no one will choose them", since "no one takes vacations to spend them in a traffic jam", he remarked.
In this line, he has appealed to the collaboration of society, companies, unions and public representatives to "reach an agreement that is essential for the future of the Canary Islands", which must be "planned according to its vision of the territory".
Looking to the future, he mentioned among the challenges to be addressed "the integration with technology, which is playing an important role" as well as communication with the client and the analysis of the "value pools" in differentiated and quality tourism.
For the spokesman of this family business of Asturian origin, "listening to the client" will be "fundamental" for the future of mobility, in order to face the challenge of "attracting talent" and "being attractive".
ALSA is currently "breaking its head to locate new services or products that add value", in a task in which digitization, or commercial labor knowledge with the final client marks the business.
Regarding the success of ALSA and the model to be implemented in the Canary Islands, he recalled that the family business is made up of "people and values" and these are what make a business "survive over time, by evolving in a business culture".
Among the values that he considers essential, he highlighted "honesty, humanity, humility and humor", because "you have to have a sense of humor and an optimistic mentality" as well as "learn from mistakes" because "the day we believe we know everything, we will be dead".
He pointed out the importance of technology and knowing how to capture talent, which is "the fundamental challenge of a company now and in the future", as well as transparency and transformation.
"You have to return to the values of always but making them evolve", he said.
At a general level, he also highlighted ALSA's work in internationalization and diversification "as the only way to grow in the future" with "hunger to improve" and hand in hand with the client.