The backpacking visionary who created the Apple of travel

David Hernández was born to travel. As a teenager, he already had a backpacking spirit that drove him to spend all his savings on discovering other countries. Such was his calling that he took it upon himself to organize trips for his friends and family. He enjoyed it. He didn't care how much time he spent. Until one day, he had the vision of creating "the Apple or Decathlon of travel," he says, his eyes lighting up. The dream became a reality under the name Pangea, a pioneering travel agency in the digital age with a revolutionary shop-office concept, which, after ten years of operation, closed 2024 with a turnover of €60 million.

At Pangea's Barcelona Travel Store, on Rambla Catalunya, where the entrance to the Club Coliseum cinema used to be, there's everything except catalogs, but suitcases and lots of books, so many that it sometimes feels like a library. There are many television screens, at least one per office. Sofas, a kind of agora with a staircase with soft cushions, and even a restaurant. It's a huge, open-plan store, in line with the change in commercial retail architecture proposed by Ariadna Perera. The travel guide 'Petit Futé' recommends it as a must-see in the heart of the city, where it occupies 1,700 square meters. "An atypical location for the largest travel agency in the world," they dare say.

“We are a digital agency, but we have managed to achieve a high conversion rate for people who seek physical contact and come to the store. We serve them, show them videos, explain the destination, and even, if necessary, speak to the correspondent who lives there and will assist them when they travel to that destination,” David Hernández proudly states next to the door of an office that is actually a piece of a shipping container in a clear decorative nod to the port of Barcelona, ​​as if upon entering the travel agent's office they were already embarking and awaiting their destination.

Two factors decisively influenced Hernández, a Barcelona native living in Madrid, to begin imagining what the travel agency of the future would be like. On the one hand, he was blowing out his candles. He earned an engineering degree from UPF, completed a master's degree from IESE, began a professional career as a strategic consultant and investment banking executive, and found himself having less and less time and desire to plan getaways for his loved ones, despite still taking advantage of every opportunity to travel. The second key factor was the success of companies like Zara, Ikea, Decathlon, MediaMarket, Mercado… “I love business models that have transformed the community, the way we shop and live, that have taken mature and antiquated sectors and transformed them with a unique customer experience,” analyzes the CEO of Pangea.

I love business models that have transformed the community, the way we shop and live, that have taken mature and outdated sectors and transformed them.” David Hernández, CEO of Pangea The Travel Store

For David Hernández, travel agencies in 2006 were outdated, uninspiring, with unattractive and small stores, "with a guy serving you who often wasn't a travel expert, but a travel salesman." The trigger for his entrepreneurial idea was 2007, the year that changed the world, according to Hernández, the year of the economic crisis but also the year of high-speed internet, the first smartphones, which led to the emergence of large multinational companies in the travel sector. Booking.com, Skyscanner, GroupOn, TripAdvisor, Civitatis, and many others, which in theory should have wiped out traditional travel agencies.

“Planning a trip on your own isn't so easy when you're traveling with five or six friends, on your honeymoon, or with your family. When setbacks arise, you have to spend at least 28 or 30 hours searching Google for information, booking a hotel and restaurants, looking for a rental car, and looking at experiences like a boat trip along the Amalfi Coast, for example,” explains David Hernández. “And that's tiring. I'm 47 now, and I no longer feel like using my phone to book the hotel where I'll stay the next night. I used to do that when I was 29, and when I got married, we went to Thailand and improvised every day, but now I don't feel like it anymore,” he explains.

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It was in 2014 that Hernández managed to raise 9 million euros to found Pangea and offer tailor-made trips. There's no catalog of options. It's the independent traveler who explains what kind of place they'd like to visit, what activities they prefer, what accommodations they'd like, whether they want to go on their own or with a guide, and from there, a trip is designed. "We do what the client wants. We sell trips for a thousand euros, but we've also organized complete experiences for two and a half million euros, and we even rented the pyramids of Egypt for an event for a car client," he says.

Pangea The Travel Store is looking for the over-40s customer. They don't turn anyone away for information, but they know their target audience is middle-aged people who no longer travel alone, value their time, and don't want to have to worry about finding last-minute solutions if things go wrong, such as the hotel they booked online being temporarily closed and the site hadn't yet removed it from its booking network. "Twenty-year-olds who travel with a backpack and are willing to sleep on the streets aren't our target, but some will grow up and want more amenities, less effort, and to be on good terms with their partner or friends, and we'll be there to help them plan the trip they want," summarizes the CEO of the company, which already has more than 200 employees and 16 of its own stores, 10 other partner agencies (soon to be 13), and a presence in Mexico, the United States, and Portugal thanks to a franchise model.

Planning a trip on your own isn't so easy when you're traveling with five or six friends, on your honeymoon or with your family, or when setbacks arise. David Hernández, CEO of Pangea The Travel Store

Although David Hernández uses the example of Decathlon or the Apple of travel, Pangea positions itself in the upper-middle-range segment. "The idea is to democratize tailor-made travel. We're not an outlet or a low-cost service, but we're not a luxury travel agency either," he summarizes. Pangea earned a profit of one million euros after taxes last year and increased its turnover by 40% in the first quarter of 2025, bringing it closer to its goal of reaching one hundred million euros in 2025 and half a billion euros in the next five years.

Preferences in Spain Japan and Egypt, the star destinations of 2025

As a company that handles more than 150 travel requests every day, Pangea The Travel Store acts as a barometer of Spanish preferences when searching for vacation destinations. In this sense, in 2025, the most popular countries are Japan and Egypt. The former because it's an exotic destination that has made a significant commitment to tourism after the pandemic, and the latter because it has recovered after years of uncertainty. Typical backpacker destinations like Sri Lanka also appear on the list of preferences. "Societies change, and so does the Spanish one. Years ago, people would go on their honeymoon to the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, or Candanchú, like my parents did, but now people are asking for the Maldives, Tanzania, or anywhere in the world," says David Hernández.

As in many other sectors of the economy, "the customer is in charge now, whereas in the 1990s, it was the supplier," says David Hernández, convinced that travel agencies have a brighter future than ever. "What we're doing is like the Tinder of travel, a matchmaking process between what the client wants and what the world has to offer, like when we organized a trip to Royal Ascot and bought hats so the women could enjoy the elegant atmosphere of the horse show," he exemplifies.