Luxury Ambassador of the Month

Mario Del Duca

Managing Director, Nuba

United States · Latin America

For Mario Del Duca, Managing Director of Nuba and a Virtuoso member, his career in travel actually began as a side hustle while he was creating his own start-up. Little did he know that his business acumen would take him in a completely different direction.

"My wife and I set up a beauty product distribution start-up straight out of business school in 2010. So it was a completely different industry. I was in banking for several years before that so my experience was not in travel at all. At the time we were importing high-end, professional beauty products to sell to hotel spas and high-end beauty salons in Mexico.

The long-term idea was to eventually be based in the U.S. since my wife is Mexican-American, so we always said, 'We'll move to the U.S. once we want to start a family and settle down properly.' So we set up this business in Mexico with the intention that we eventually wouldn't need to be based there to manage it. In 2014 we finally felt that things were in place operationally and with the team. So once we had it how we wanted we said, 'Ok, well, let's start traveling the world, and travel as much as we can before we start a family.'

When you're an entrepreneur, you constantly have ideas about things. And the best ideas come when you're traveling – when you're away from your office, your desk, your team, away from people and you just have time. Like when you're by an amazing beach or on a mountain somewhere and enjoying and absorbing nature, you switch your phone off, and that's when I believe your mind works in a different way.

We started going to different hubs like Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, for example, and then traveling around for three to four days at a time. That's where the idea to create an Instagram page came in. Initially it had nothing to do with business – we just wanted to give our family and friends a way to keep up with us, and to share our experiences of where we were and what we were doing.

What happened, though, was that we started getting contacted by hotels around the world. This was in the early, early days of Instagram, about early 2015, when hotels were still trying to figure out how to monetize social media. We were seen as sort of 'early-stage influencers' if you will, and they'd offer to have us come stay, take pictures and put them up on Instagram. Naturally we said, 'Okay, we'll do it!'

We were doing that for some time while we were managing our business. Eventually around early 2017 we were contacted by this agency in Mexico, and essentially the same thing happened as with the hotels: 'Hey, we've seen your Instagram. You guys travel a lot and know your stuff. We're setting up a travel advisor program, an Independent Contractor (IC) program...let's have a chat.'

That's how my wife and I became travel advisors for Lozano. It was one of the big agencies that Nuba acquired in 2019 (the other being ITG). They were the two most important agencies in Mexico because they had all the hot agents.

Shortly after the acquisition, I met the CEO of Grupo Nuba and we hit it off from day one, since he also has a background in start-ups and banking. In 2021 he asked me to set up Nuba in the U.S., and now we have around 15 advisors there. A year and a half ago he called me up and said, 'I want you to lead all of the Americas, including Mexico,' which metaphorically is the crown jewel for Nuba. So now we don't see ourselves as Nuba Mexico and USA but Nuba Americas. That's also because we have plans to expand to other markets around the Americas.

Now I've got this amazing team, about 200-250 people based in the Americas division, around 100 of which are some of the best travel advisors in the business. Some of the most respected people in luxury travel are on our team who curate travel for some of the most discerning clients, including big celebrities. And it's great to see that we're winning worldwide recognition for that on the individual level with our advisors, as well as on an agency level.

For sales, 2022 was a record year for the group. In 2023, we grew over 60% in the Americas compared to the previous year. What I think sets us apart is that we figure out ways for advisors to have less time doing administrative work, and more time with their clients. Finding new ways to support them has been critical, as has sharing knowledge about destinations so we can spot trends as quickly as possible.

In 2022 we set up a MICE division to capture the B2B part, and it really started to take off in 2023. We now also have our own DMC in Mexico, which we're positioning as the go-to luxury DMC for Mexico, and a lot of the top U.S. agencies already work with our DMC. In the long term we're looking to build out our portfolio of DMCs as we expand into new markets, and we're looking to add at least one more this year.

Focusing on luxury makes economic sense, as the mass market is much more volatile, and as a business you're much more susceptible to economic cycles. That's not to say that the luxury doesn't suffer when there's a crisis or when there's a downturn – of course it does. But it's also a fact that the top end of the market is also able to absorb that part of the cycle much better than the mass market, and what we saw with the pandemic is proof of that.

What I love about travel is you learn so much. I've met some really inspirational people at Nuba, and one of the best qualities of a great travel advisor is their willingness and ability to share knowledge. And many of our agents have encyclopedic knowledge about the hotels and destinations.

If you can combine trust with passion, that's a powerful combination in this industry. I think there's a misconception sometimes in business – that you won't necessarily be successful if you follow your passion. I could've stayed in banking, but I wanted to get my MBA, I wanted to set up my own businesses, and I wanted to travel. Had I not left the banking world I wouldn't have been able to do that, and it would've been much more difficult for me to combine a passion with a business. My advice for other luxury travel advisors out there? Foster your relationships with suppliers and never stop learning, but above all never forget your passion. It's what centers you and what brings you back to why you're doing what you're doing."

*****