What once started with a walking tour in Morocco has led to two offices for Barrio Life. From Amsterdam and Barcelona, they create tailor-made trips: individual tours, special family trips and group trips for companies, teams and groups of friends. A conversation with the men behind Barrio Life: Rikkert Barendse and Nick Wevers.
Barrio Life is a fast-growing Dutch travel organisation that specialises in organising tours and group trips to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The company looks new and fresh, but has already been around for 12.5 years. Key words are authentic, carefree, value for money and especially the local experience.
You offer trips to three destinations: Spain, Portugal and Morocco. How did that come about?
Rikkert: ‘Barrio Life was founded 12.5 years ago out of a love for Morocco. It started with a backpack heading for the Sahara. I set up a walking tour there for the first time, with a clear focus on personal development. It was a niche tour, aimed at an individual audience. But it was a start, and from that moment on we continued to offer Morocco. We also developed various activities that focused on local experience and interaction. At one point, we received a lot of demand from the market to also offer Spain and Portugal. We are now specialists in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. You can really call us a regional specialist.’
What is your connection with these destinations?
Rikkert: ‘I live in Barcelona and have a passion for tourism. I speak Spanish and French and have been to Morocco 25 times. In that respect, our team and I have a lot of in-depth product knowledge of the countries and the possibilities. During the corona pandemic, when there was more time, I wrote a practical travel book for our customers. I really drove from village to village to see the local terraces, the local hotspots and all the nice details and facts about Portugal, Spain and Morocco.’
Who is the target group?
Nick: ‘It is very diverse. We focus on group travellers, from individuals to small party weekends and large events. The largest part of our target group is in the SME sector. They are looking for a fun weekend, but often with a commercial or business goal. What we hear a lot is the need for ‘employer branding’. The labour market is a huge challenge for many sectors. Customers literally say: ‘I want to keep the back door closed and the front door open, so that no one leaves and I can attract staff more easily’. Group travel like the ones we offer works very well for that.’
For which sectors is that of great importance?
‘We see that mainly with companies that focus on software, development, marketing and engineering.’
What distinguishes you from other incentive agencies that also offer trips to this region?
‘The most important thing is that we are both Dutch travel organisations and DMC. With an office in Amsterdam, we are close to the customer. We also have an office with Dutch employees in Barcelona and later this year we will open an office in Marrakech. So there is no link with a non-Dutch DMC on site, who has to execute what we come up with. And who also has to earn his margin. So you can see us as your Dutch partner on site with Dutch-speaking tour guides. That combination ensures fast switching and a high price-quality ratio.’
A kind of one-stop-shop?
‘Indeed, with unburdening as an extra service. Customers can come to us for everything. On the one hand, you have the ‘simpler’ party weekends with lots of fun and less cultural interaction, but also groups that are looking for the authentic and cultural. That ‘just that little bit more’…’
Can you give an example?
‘We once had KPMG as a regular client, for whom we did leadership programs. Every month a group of young managers came for whom we rented a private estate in the Algarve, Andalusia or Morocco. There they had a five-day coaching program, a special aspect of the MICE sector. Our ambition lies more on the side of content. For example, we also do specialist programs for horticultural companies that visit special locations in Morocco that are useful for their sector. Thanks to our in-depth knowledge of our destinations, we have the contacts that make that possible. But we are also open to groups that just want to have fun. Then we provide a suitable program and a great time. We can also add local elements to those programs. It is not just the standard bike tour.’
You also go outside the well-known places in these countries.
‘That’s right. That certainly applies to individual travelers, who have more of a need to travel around. Companies tend to stay in the cities. Take Barcelona, for example. Nearby is the Penedès wine region, where you can cycle and taste good wine. It looks like a Tuscan landscape! There are many areas that are still real discoveries.’
Plans to grow to other regions?
‘Since corona, we have been growing by 25% every year, which is quite a lot. Also within our current destinations. We also offer trips to the islands: Mallorca, Ibiza, Madeira, etc. I think we still have plenty to do for the time being. And growth is not a goal in itself for us. First of all, we enjoy working together: with each other, with our professional colleagues, with customers and with our partners. Organizing a great trip or event together is the best thing there is.’
What role does the local population play at Barrio Life?
‘We started with the idea of integrating local life more into the travel experience. That is still our starting point. The atmosphere at the destination and the local life give that extra added value.
An important aspect nowadays…
‘We won the Entrepreneurship Award from the Dutch Embassy in Madrid at the end of 2024 for our travel philosophy. We received the award for our story about win-win tourism, something we have already applied in the past. This means that we pay suppliers fairly and consult with them about the best collaboration. We want employees to develop, interns to have a great time and customers to have a top experience. It’s about that win-win connection. I started traveling for pure pleasure, backpacking through the Sahara. I studied sustainable tourism in Breda. My motivation is not to get rich quickly; I do this because I like it. Nick and I agree that when everyone involved is happy – the customer, the intermediary, the employee, the local population – it feels good. That gives more satisfaction than only thinking about your own success. That’s why we received the Entrepreneurship Award. And we are quite proud of that.’
