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Adriana Echandi leads Morpho Travel Experience across 23 airports and 11 countries Businesswoman of the Year 2022 - El Financiero Costa Rica Morpho Travel Experience: 25 years of transforming airports into destinations 2,800 employees. 300+ commercial spaces. 78 million passengers served annually Moodie Davitt People of the Year 2022 - Adriana Echandi From cashier in 2002 to Group CEO - 20+ years, one company, every role in between FAB Award: Airport Food Hall of the Year + Global Sustainability Initiative of the Year 50% women in management. Equal pay. No quotas - just culture. Adriana Echandi leads Morpho Travel Experience across 23 airports and 11 countries Businesswoman of the Year 2022 - El Financiero Costa Rica Morpho Travel Experience: 25 years of transforming airports into destinations 2,800 employees. 300+ commercial spaces. 78 million passengers served annually Moodie Davitt People of the Year 2022 - Adriana Echandi From cashier in 2002 to Group CEO - 20+ years, one company, every role in between
Adriana Echandi - Group CEO, Morpho Travel Experience
Group CEO & Executive

Adriana
Echandi

Group CEO - Morpho Travel Experience | Costa Rica

She started at the cash register on May 5, 2002 - the same day the company itself began. Twenty-plus years later, Adriana Echandi Bachtold runs a travel retail empire across 11 Latin American countries, 300+ commercial spaces, and 2,800 employees who call airports home.

Airport Retail Sustainability Latin America Aspen Fellow F&B
2,800+ Employees
11 Countries
300+ Commercial Spaces
78M Passengers/Year
23 Airports

She Started at the Cash Register

There is a specific date that matters here: May 5, 2002. That is the day Adriana Echandi Bachtold walked into what was then Grupo Britt as a cashier-seller - a role the company called "Britt Shopping Partner." It is also the exact date Morpho Travel Experience was formally founded. She did not join a company with a legacy. She arrived at the beginning.

What followed was not a conventional career arc. No lateral moves to competitors, no dramatic industry pivots. Instead, Adriana moved through the organization the way water moves through rock - steadily, relentlessly, reshaping the terrain as she went. Store supervisor. Airport coordinator. Trainer. Recruiter. Buyer. Project and architecture manager. Northern region manager. Vice President of Operations and Innovation. Then, in May 2017, CEO. By 2021, Group CEO of an operation spanning 11 countries.

Each role was not a stepping stone. It was a full residency. She learned architecture enough to manage construction projects. She learned buying enough to shape product philosophy. She learned training and recruiting enough to build a corporate culture where people stay for an average of 14-18 years. That depth shows in how she leads now - not from a slide deck, but from the floor.

"If you want to understand what we do, it's important that you walk the stores, meet the people, see the culture at work and discover the nuances of each location."
- Adriana Echandi, Group CEO
"We started with a small kiosk and we are now a mid-sized travel retail player... really we are only in the middle of our story."
The 10-Role Journey: From Cashier to Group CEO
01
Cashier Seller
2002
02
Store Supervisor
2003+
03
Trainer & Recruiter
2004+
04
Buyer & Project Mgr
2006+
05
VP of Operations
2015+
06
Group CEO
2021

What Morpho Actually Is

Named after the iridescent blue butterfly native to Central America, Morpho Travel Experience operates on a philosophy called "sense of place." The premise is simple and the execution is not: every commercial space in every airport should feel like a genuine portal into the culture of its location, not a generic duty-free corridor. That means destination-specific store design, locally sourced artisan products, and food concepts that reflect regional cuisine rather than franchise menus.

The numbers behind that philosophy are substantial. Morpho operates in Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, Curacao, Antigua & Barbuda, and New Caledonia. Its 300+ commercial spaces sit inside 23 airports that collectively handle 78 million passengers per year. The company serves more than 10 million customers annually - roughly equivalent to the entire population of Portugal passing through its stores each year.

The parent company - rebranded in February 2023 from Grupo Britt to Grupo Arribada - is owned by approximately 200 shareholders, many of whom work inside the business. The name "Arribada" refers to the synchronized mass nesting event of olive ridley sea turtles on Costa Rica's Pacific coast: thousands of individuals, moving together, creating something that no single animal could accomplish alone. As metaphors go for a company built from within, it is unusually apt.

$225M+

Grupo Arribada annual revenue (2022)

$25M

CAPEX investment planned in 2022 alone

+20%

Above pre-pandemic 2019 sales in 2022

Business Segments

Airport Retail • Food & Beverages • Hotels & Attractions • Street Locations • Off-Airport Hospitality (1M+ hotel guests/year)

"We are mid-sized and are big enough to invest with the airports, but also small enough to be an individual partner to each artisan."
- Adriana Echandi on Morpho's competitive position

The Culture She Built

Adriana runs a flat organization. There are no administrative assistants at Morpho - not as a cost-saving measure, but as a deliberate structural choice. Leaders work directly with their teams. Decisions move fast. The average senior management tenure is 14-18 years. That last figure matters more than most: in retail, where turnover typically runs hot, retaining senior people for nearly two decades is not accidental.

Fifty percent of Morpho's management team are women. Adriana is quick to clarify that this did not happen through quotas or policies. It grew from culture - from a company that promoted based on what people could do, including a cashier who happened to know how to do everything. Equal pay applies across all income brackets and all roles. An Inclusion Programme addresses age, disability, sexual orientation, and gender expression.

She describes the operating philosophy as "agile." In practice, that means an organization where you can try something, fail at it, and not be penalized for the attempt. "Customer first, innovation first" - with encouragement to "try things and be daring without the fear of messing up." For a company serving 10 million passengers annually across 11 countries, that tolerance for experimentation is what keeps the menu changing.

"

We are agile, we take decisions fast, and we cannot function in anything other than in this human way.

"

Grupo Britt me ha dado la enseñanza y la libertad de alcanzar todas mis metas.

"

El 2022 fue trascendental porque realmente ibamos rompiendo records - (2022 was transcendental because we were truly breaking monthly records).

Three Pillars, One Company

Morpho's sustainability framework runs on three pillars: For The People, For The World, For The Oceans. Each is a live program, not a positioning statement.

👥

For The People

Direct partnerships with 35+ artisans across Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile through the Comunidad Latinoamericana de Artesanos (CLA). Goal: impact 200+ artisans within five years. Bilingual textbooks for 5,200+ Costa Rican children. Free French and English lessons for rural suppliers.

🌎

For The World

Stores built with renewable materials, 100% LED lighting, and locally crafted furnishings. "Green Route" sustainability award for the Salar de Sol store at Santiago Airport. Reducing and replacing single-use plastics across all locations. Circular economy commitments embedded in supply chain.

🌊

For The Oceans

The "Bring It Back" initiative encourages customers to return plastic bottles in-store. Coastal community support program in Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula, developed in partnership with the National University's interdisciplinary program. Ocean conservation at the intersection of retail and ecology.

Putting Artisans in Airports

The Comunidad Latinoamericana de Artesanos is Morpho's most concrete sustainability bet. The program creates direct commercial relationships between Morpho and independent artisans across Latin America - bypassing intermediaries, strengthening supply chains, and providing technical support to producers who would otherwise have no path to airport-scale distribution.

Currently 35+ artisan partners. Target: 200+ within five years. The artisans gain access to Morpho's logistics, store design, and international foot traffic. Morpho gains products that no airport competitor can replicate - because they are genuinely local, genuinely handmade, and genuinely tied to the culture each store is trying to represent.

The program is documented in a 2024 documentary, "CLA: Conectando la artesania de Latinoamerica con el mundo," available on YouTube.

35 artisan partners today. Goal: 200+ in five years. Each one a cultural story a passenger takes home.

Why It Works

Morpho is large enough to absorb artisan-scale production volumes - and small enough to give each maker individual attention. That midsize positioning is the deliberate competitive moat.

Awards & Milestones

2022
Businesswoman of the Year
El Financiero, Costa Rica
2022
People of the Year
Moodie Davitt Report
2022
Airport Food Hall of the Year (Americas)
FAB Awards
2022
Sustainability Initiative of the Year (Global)
FAB Awards
  • Aspen Global Leadership Network Fellow - 13th Class, Central America Leadership Initiative
  • 90 new projects inaugurated across 11 countries in a single year (2022)
  • Led 2,000 m² commercial zone launch at Juan Santamaria International Airport, San Jose
  • "Green Route" Sustainability Award - Salar de Sol store, Santiago Airport Terminal 2
  • AMB Awards 2024 - Santiago Airport - Plaza Chile innovative concept
  • Record sales in 2022: 20% above pre-pandemic 2019 levels
  • Grew Morpho from a single kiosk to presence in 23 airports serving 78M passengers annually

Twenty Years in Motion

May 5, 2002
Joined Grupo Britt as a cashier-seller on the company's founding day
2003 - 2008
Advanced through store supervisor, airport coordinator, trainer, recruiter, buyer
2009 - 2010
Completed Global Executive MBA at INCAE Business School
2010 - 2016
Project and architecture manager, northern region manager, VP of Operations and Innovation
May 2017
Appointed CEO of Morpho Travel Retail
2021
Became Group CEO of Morpho Travel Experience
2022
Record-breaking year: 90 new projects, 300 new jobs in Costa Rica, Businesswoman of the Year
Feb 2023
Parent company rebranded from Grupo Britt to Grupo Arribada
2024 - 2026
Morpho celebrates 25th anniversary; CLA documentary released; AMB Awards for Plaza Chile concept
INCAE Business School
Global Executive MBA, 2009-2010
Universidad Internacional de las Americas
Bachelor's in Business Administration
Aspen Global Leadership Network
Fellow, 13th Class - Central America Leadership Initiative

Also: VP of Retail, Cafe Britt

Alongside her Morpho role, Adriana serves as Vice President of Retail at Cafe Britt, overseeing a budget exceeding $100 million and managing operations across 13 countries.

Details Worth Knowing

She is the youngest of five siblings. By the time she became Group CEO, she had held more roles at the same company than most executives hold in a lifetime.

The butterfly in Morpho's name is the Morpho butterfly - iridescent, iconic, and native to Central America. The logo is not decoration. It is an ecological statement.

Morpho's parent company renamed itself "Grupo Arribada" after the synchronized mass sea turtle nesting event on Costa Rica's Pacific coast. Thousands of turtles. One beach. Simultaneously.

Morpho serves 10 million passengers per year - roughly the entire population of Portugal, walking through Adriana's stores annually.

The company sources from local women farmers in Costa Rica's Central Valley and offered free French and English lessons to rural suppliers. The supply chain is a development program.

No administrative assistants at Morpho. Intentionally. Leaders handle their own communications and work directly with teams. Flat, by design.

Watch Adriana in Action

Find Adriana & Morpho

In the Press

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