The Journey That Defined Us

Our Story

Local Secrets was founded on May 20, 2021. The initial idea arose from the need to offer places recommended by locals to tourists, travelers and visitors to significantly improve their travel experience.

The initial pilot project was developed through a website in the city of Lisbon, and almost immediately, the project management realized the need to develop a platform through an APP.

For almost a year, the project focused on developing the business model and actively searching for partners and potential ambassadors for the project. It was not until November 2022 that work began on developing the technological project.

Until then, important concepts such as the business model, relationships with customers and partners, as well as B2B collaboration programs and the search for the first Ambassadors were tested and validated.

The first Ambassador and a very important part of the project was Filipa Leitão de Aguiar in Lisbon, and later other tourism professionals joined, such as Natalia Lairón in Valencia, and so the first two pilot cities were born.

In May 2024, the current Local Secrets team was officially created with José Vázquez as CEO, Alexia Zottu as COO, Carmen Marin as CMO and Edison Valdez as CTO. Marie Lebreton, Olga Pernia, Javier Alvarez and Carlos Freire are also part of the team.

It was in February 2024 in the city of Lisbon during the BTL Lisbon International Fair that the project was officially presented, precisely in the city where it was born. Later, during the month of May of the same year, the same project was presented in Valencia, where a network of professional ambassadors began to be woven, present in more than 24 destinations, 7 countries and 4 continents.