Luisa Mendoza wanted to be a child psychologist; however, that was going to take her many years at school, and her rush was the promise she had made to her parents to retire them. They had emigrated from Colombia when she was 4 years old with the sole intention of giving their “Chinita” a better life, as they call girls in that country.
“I graduated from university in three years”, said Mendoza, founder and CEO of Global Tourism Sports and Entertainment. “For me, time was money.”
The company that Mendoza runs is dedicated to connecting the tourism industry with the country’s sports teams, something that she began to do –before anyone else– with the Brooklyn Nets of New York, who hired her to create a department dedicated to attracting visitors from all over the world to their games. This made her the first tourism expert hired by a professional sports team.
“I didn’t want to leave my job at NYC and Company,” Mendoza said. “I was director for Latin America and Spain and the Hispanic area of the United States.”
But the Brooklyn Nets convinced her when they gave her an open letter to start a department that no other sports team in the country had. And they were not wrong. In the years he worked with them, from 2017 to 2019, Mendoza helped more than triple the world’s tourism trade earnings.
Then , when representatives of the United States Travel Association saw what she had done, they met with her to tell her that there were many teams in all leagues that needed an expert to create the link between tourism and their teams.
Mendoza agreed to advise them, and from there came the idea of founding Global Tourism Sports and Entertainment, a company that made her the first Hispanic, and woman, to create a company with these characteristics.
In addition to providing advice , this company represents its clients in the most important tourism fairs in the world and offers a platform through which tourist agencies have access to all kinds of sporting events.
With this company, Mendoza became the first Hispanic, and woman, to create a sports, entertainment and sightseeing. And yes, she did fulfill her wish to retire her parents; They both live with her and her daughter.
