Alberto Gómez Delgado PRESIDENT & GM, AVIS RENTAL CAR

What is your perspective on the current state of the Mexican mobility and car rental industry?

We have gone through a tremendous amount of change in the last 15 months. In 2020, we were trying to survive, and now it looks like we are in this pandemic for the long haul. The repercussions on the tourism industry as a whole have been significant. There has been a tremendous increase in tourism in the last four months. Business travel will have a longer recovery period however. Customers now want to rent cars that are sanitized in front of them and avoid means of transportation that would put them in contact with other people. In summary, we need to adapt in many ways and display resiliency. One of our competitors filed for bankruptcy in the US, which was a red flag for us and made us extremely cautious about how we manage the business.

How is Avis adapting to the digital transformation trends in Mexico?

We are looking at strategies where we will adopt a significant amount of platforms that will allow us to manage the business much more effectively, understand and anticipate business trends and customer needs much more efficiently, and enable us to become a data-driven company in order to remain close to the customer. The top priority of our marketing manager is devising digital strategies. We are the only car rental company in Mexico that has been conducting customer service surveys, so we have a large amount of data that needs to be turned into information. We see many opportunities for digital tools to make the rental transaction much simpler and a more pleasant experience for the customer.