Civitatis
Andrés Spitzer has worked in technology and marketplace businesses, including roles at Amazon, Europcar and Ubeeqo. He led product and technology at Civitatis from February 2025 until being promoted to the CEO role.
Tours and activities marketplace Civitatis has been expanding its presence in Latin America. Most recently it announced a partnership to integrate its inventory with online travel agency Despegar.
Andrés Spitzer became CEO of Civitatis on January 1, moving up from the role of chief product and technology officer.
He described his first six months leading the company as a "learning curve," with the conflict in the Middle East driving the team to change how it operates and reallocate demand.
Spitzer believes the greatest challenges for the industry currently are travel discovery using artificial intelligence (AI) and trust.
"As an OTA, we are very keen on making sure that we are discoverable. We're in a moment where people have moved from just using Google to search for things, to a world where they started to make questions, to a world—very fast—that is asking to agents to do things," he said during an interview in the PhocusWire studio at Phocuswright Europe 2026.
To instill trust, Spitzer said it's helpful to ensure customers find the right experiences when they travel.
"Knowing that the content is going to be correct, that the experiences are going to be operated correctly, that there is trust—which is not because we say so, it's because we have millions and millions of travelers that give human feedback."
He went on to discuss the evolution of the web from its current format to the impact of large language models and on to agentic commerce.
"When agents are going to be running transactions, we need to be technically ready to do that and do it in a complex granular space, which is activities, which is way less mature in terms of technology when you compare it with flights and hotels. So, there are a lot of things to improve."
Spitzer also touched on what he brings to Civitatis from his time at Amazon and growth in Latin America for Civitatis alongside its recent deal with Despegar.
See below for the full interview with PhocusWire's Linda Fox.
CEO Spotlight: Andres Spitzer of Civitatis