Viajes El Corte Inglés travel agency, has relocated its US headquarters to Miami from New York City

The Miami headquarters is to house 25 employees and operations for incoming international passengers, leisure travel, corporate and congress travel and the company’s new tripcruises.com, said Juan Carlos Basabe, director of international sales for Viajes El Corte Inglés.

Viajes El Corte Inglés relocated to Miami because of “the Spanish touch” and the large number of multinational companies that call South Florida home, Basabe said.

In addition, it was important to have a South Florida location for the launch of tripcruises.com, which will offer the ability to purchase cruise vacations on select lines. Full integration of the website with major cruise liners will be complete by Aug. 1, Basabe said.

“We aim to have a strong presence in the United States, because we feel that there is a tremendous growth potential, both within the growing Hispanic market as well as the general market,” Viajes el Corte Inglés CEO Jesus Nuño de la Rosa said in a news release. “Our new headquarters and the launch of tripcruises.com will allow us to build new relationships that will lead to a growth of our operations, and more options for our customers around the world.”

The new U.S. headquarters joins a network of more than 827 Viajes El Corte Inglés offices in 19 countries, including Argentina, Mexico, France and Belgium.

Viajes El Corte Inglés is a subsidiary of Grupo El Corte Inglés, a Spanish business group that also features department stores. There are no plans at the moment to open a department store in the U.S., Basabe said.