At the beginning of the year, the launch of a new cruise company, Alma Cruceros. The boutique ship Ocean Victory will make its inaugural cruise between Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Málaga on April 18th of next year. From there, it will offer cruises of one to two weeks, primarily exploring the western Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Canary Islands. The company is Spanish and targets a Spanish-speaking clientele.
Article from CruisesNews magazine no. 69 – June 2024
We spoke with its owner and president, Elisardo Sánchez
Burgos, who is the president of Alma Cruceros, the first boutique cruise line in history.
Over the years, Elisardo has built a distinguished career in consulting, auditing, and business management. His visionary leadership and strategic approach have led him to hold key roles in various companies, from consulting to hotels and restaurants.
With a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Málaga, Elisardo has complemented his education with a wide range of master's degrees, courses, and workshops in key areas such as taxation, commercial law, human resources, and marketing.
As president of Alma Cruceros, Elisardo continues to set a benchmark in the industry, leading a unique offering in the cruise sector, where exclusivity and personalized service are the cornerstones.
His innovative vision and ability to develop new businesses have been recognized both nationally and internationally. In addition to his role at Alma Cruises, Elisardo has held and continues to hold senior management positions in companies across various sectors, demonstrating his versatility and ability to adapt to changing business environments. His commitment to operational excellence and his focus on customer satisfaction make him a respected and admired business leader within the business community.
Where did your interest in launching a cruise company of this kind come from?
It really started one day in May 2018, when I don't know exactly why, I started thinking that I had to do something new; I've always liked to "create".
Of course, this decision is linked to my knowledge of the hospitality industry and, naturally, to my passion for cruises.
I had already done many cruises and I started to analyze it from the point of view that they are essentially floating hotels and combine it with the way I like to enjoy leisure time on cruises, and I said, why not?
From there, I started on my own to see what the market niche was, and also noticing that there wasn't a Spanish cruise company.
The conclusion for me was clear: new boat and small boat. Then I started commissioning studies, and they all agreed, especially that the missing niche was, first and foremost, an "upper premium" concept for Spaniards, and I saw that as a great opportunity.
We want to create the concept of a Boutique Shipping Company
You like cruises and you travel regularly with your family, right?
Yes, I do. I've traveled with several cruise lines. I remember one cruise where I took my family (I hadn't mentioned the idea I had in mind) and suddenly I found myself analyzing every detail of how they were doing everything. By then I was thinking more about my project than enjoying the vacation, and my wife and son noticed.
Where does the name Alma Cruises come from, and what type of client is Alma Cruises designed for?
Alma Cruises because it's a name with soul, reflecting what we were experiencing with the small team I surrounded myself with. Putting your heart and soul into something is essential. And soul is what we want to offer our clients.
Alma is the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the creation of an ambitious project. Furthermore, we developed our product with a strong focus on the individual, paying attention to detail and making the customer the center of attention, and the soul came to mind. It represented what we had been and what we wanted to be.
As for the type of client, I mainly see couples between 40 and 60 years old, not very old. Possibly even from 35 onwards, a little younger, who may have already been on cruises and really want a more personalized experience.
Not the super-expert cruiser, but the one who wants to evolve towards a more personalized and less mass-marketed product.
Of course, the niche is Spanish-speaking, something that was clear from the beginning.
We wanted to make a genuine Spanish product, an authentic Spanish product, made by Spaniards and for Spanish speakers.
We're talking about a ship with approximately 180 passengers. Would you categorize it as premium, luxury?
I would steer clear of that. That's when I initially started thinking about where there was a clear, general classification in the sector... Premium, Upper Premium, luxury, super luxury, and other types of features, like expedition.
Here we want to create the concept of a Boutique Shipping Company, because we understand that this is what we want to do in some way.
Our hotel group consists entirely of small boutique hotels, meticulously designed with attention to detail, personalized service, and a distinctive ambiance. We want our ships to be like this, and therefore we would like to coin the concept of a Boutique Cruise Line.
That's why instead of Upper Premium I prefer to talk about Boutique Shipping.
Are you thinking of something unique for onboard entertainment as well?
It's essential for our project that the product is designed not only with attention to detail at the onboard level, but also in terms of the experiences.
So, we are now working on defining what experience we want on board and what experience we want on land.
The onboard experience will be lively in every corner of the ship; however, the shows in the theater will feature top-level artists, giving it a distinctive character.
They will be very Spanish shows, avoiding folklore; they are high-quality shows. We want to bring on board people who are successful on land.
We don't rule out nods to Hispanic culture because our philosophy is that there should be a union of Hispanic cultures, that is, to somehow unite the Hispanic culture of both sides of the Atlantic, so that we can really have the musical culture of America represented as well.
We wanted to make a genuine Spanish product, authentic Spanish, made by Spaniards and for Spanish speakers
Tell me about the ship. From 2018 until 2024, when they announced the launch, I imagine you've been looking for the best option.
Tell me about that journey in the search for the right ship and your future plans regarding new ships.
Well, the truth is, it's been the worst, the most complicated part.
At first, the first thing we pointed out was the high barrier to entry in the sector, for various reasons: the financial aspect, which had been a large investment if we wanted to own a ship; the market, so closed to newcomers, and we have experienced that difficulty.
The road was very winding because we started thinking about building a ship that was a little bigger, that's why I was talking about Upper Premium, which was the first thing we said, and I imagined a ship for 700 passengers, which was our first thought.
And then, with the pandemic, we saw the added difficulties of financing the construction of a ship. We tried hard and worked very hard on it, and in the end, well, let's say the scenario shifted towards a more luxurious ship, instead of Upper Premium, so to speak.
And in the end, the circumstances led us to look for a less financially demanding option, which was to find a shipowner who had a newly built ship and could charter it to us.
Thus, at a certain point we abandoned the idea of building a ship and went in search of an existing ship, but without deviating from the script: that the ship be newly built or very recently built, and that it have a certain technical characteristic of sustainability, and that it have a minimum of quality.
And from there, different opportunities arose that we did not close, we were presented with many boats that did not meet the characteristics and we quickly discarded them and we arrived at this boat that has allowed us, at least, to enter the sector.
What will happen after the 2025 season?
Obviously, we didn't start this project to stay here.
It's an opportunity to be in the industry, with only six months, which initially seemed too short for us, but as always happens when we see a crisis, we look for opportunities. And the opportunity was to be in the industry, gain experience, and learn.
This is new for us; we have hotels, but we don't have ships.
Do we know how to do it? Yes, we have people who can help us do it right, but we have to get going, like everything else in life.
So, this gives us the background to be able to do this.
And we're realizing that in just one month of existence, people are already taking notice of us: suppliers, consignees, ship owners…
So, this will allow us to have ships soon, newly built ships.
We still have one option, but I don't rule out the possibility that other opportunities will arise very soon.
What we are clear about is that we see ourselves with 2, 3 ships or even 4, that is our project, that is our project.
Let's talk about the current project. It's a six-month operational project, launching in June, but operations begin in April 2025.
Tell us about the itineraries.
We start operating on April 18, 2025, departing from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The inaugural cruise, which will be very special for us, will call at Puerto del Rosario in Fuerteventura. After that, we have a day's sailing to Essaouira. Rabat is pending confirmation, and then we'll continue on to Tangier, Ceuta, and Malaga.
And the only overnight stay we're doing is that day in Malaga, because we'll be there for three days, from the 25th to the 27th, where we'll be sponsoring, not the ship because it already has its name, but the project, with the Port Authority and the authorities of Malaga and the Junta de Andalucía. We'll have a party and present the project to the people of Malaga, and from the 27th onwards we'll be doing cruises around Andalusia.
The idea is to connect the Andalusian cities by sea. So, the route will be Málaga, Chipiona, where we'll anchor to access Doñana National Park directly, from there we'll sail up the Guadalquivir River to Seville, then down to Cádiz, and from Cádiz we'll go to Melilla.
I hope we have some wonderful experiences in Melilla; the anchorage in the Chafarinas Islands is still pending confirmation, as I mentioned. After that, we'll go through Almería, Motril, and Málaga.
That's the route we're going to take; I don't remember if it's 5 or 6 weeks. April, May, and possibly the first week of June.
And then we'll do a small repositioning to Barcelona.
We take a very interesting tour in our view because we visit Melilla, Almería, Cartagena, Ibiza, Valencia, San Carles de la Rápita and Barcelona.
We started operating on April 18, 2025, departing from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
That is, according to the program, the cruises are 7 days long, except for the first one, which is 8/9 days, and on the return trip, due to date scheduling, we have a 5-day tour of Andalusia.
And from Barcelona we have three different cruises. We'll be visiting the French Riviera with stops at different ports on those three itineraries. Two of the cruises will include a stop in Tarragona.
Next, we have the Barcelona-Malaga repositioning, the same route again, but in reverse. Once in Malaga, we take several more identical routes to the ones I mentioned at the beginning, and then we return to Las Palmas following the same route as the outbound journey.
Those are all the routes we're going to take.
We finished on October 17th, which is when we handed the ship over to Albatros in Las Palmas for its winter season, its southern summer.
Other differentiating features?
Yes. The distinguishing feature is that we want this project to be a combination of the traditional cruise ship and the private yacht.
In other words, it's another distinguishing feature of the project. We're going to arrive in Seville, as an urban destination, for example, where we'll seek unique onshore experiences, but we'll combine that with anchoring in Doñana.
Or when we go to Italy or France, where they allow us to anchor more peacefully, we'll anchor there.
But there is another feature that in Spain they allow us to anchor.
But why not bring a catamaran that can be attached to our boat in port, in the port of Ibiza, to anchor in Formentera?.
We will do that, with the idea that guests who want to enjoy the sea can enjoy the sea, and guests who want to enjoy the urban destination can enjoy the urban destination.
What about the onshore experiences?
We want to start the cruise before people board the ship, at least in Málaga. The night before, we're going to visit the Alcazaba of Málaga, a theatrical tour where there will be a character from that era, and we'll go up inside the Alcazaba to reach Gibralfaro Castle, where we'll have dinner, possibly with a musical performance.
It's for all passengers. We want people to start enjoying our cruise before they even board the ship; we want the experience to begin beforehand.
And about the team. Who's behind this whole project?
Well, I've had many collaborators and friends. More than collaborators, friends who have helped me a lot throughout this process and these years of work.
The truth is, I have words of gratitude for all of them. They did it completely behind the scenes, simply to help someone who had thought of something, and their experience helped me a great deal.
But really, those who are with me on the project have also been there from the beginning and in some way are now inside the project, and as a partner in the project.
Starting with Pedro Costa, an essential person for the project, because of his knowledge, his energy as a person and as a professional, and a pillar on whom the other three partners rely, because he is the one with the knowledge in the sector.
And we, moreover, as a company that is going to market the product, I mean, where we are focusing our efforts most is on marketing.
The rest of us come from the world of business management in general, with a strong interest in legal matters, because two of the partners are lawyers, and legal certainty is a very important issue for me.
I too, although I have a degree in economics, also have a strong legal background.
But the three of us also have a vision of financial management, of operations management, and not so much experience in cruises, but rather in the business world.
There are four of us: Pedro Costa, Roel Tierri, Agustín Fernández, and me, who has been chosen to lead the project.
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