Awake Tourism Challenge

UNWTO calls for a joint effort amongst stakeholders and launches the Awake Tourism Challenge seeking to find the most innovative startups that are working to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Target Startups

Startups from all walks of life, from all over the world and all economic sectors are invited to participate if meeting the following criteria:

  • Be innovative in nature providing value-added solutions
  • Be sustainability-driven
  • Be scalable: to have potential for international growth and potential to be applied in corporations and destinations (countries, regions)
  • Be an Early Stage or Series A startup
  • Introduction or adoption of digital and technological elements
  • Have a tested pilot and business plan
  • Have been accelerated before
  • Have a full-time team including at least 2 members under 35 years. Gender balance will be also considered.

All ways of innovation are welcome: technology, social impact and sustainability solutions.

Categories

UNWTO has identified 6 challenges that that will act as the categories for this programme;

  1. Local community involvement
  2. Green and blue economies
  3. Ecological and Sustainable Capital Creation
  4. Tourism Tech for Good
  5. Tourism Education
  6. Women Empowerment

Evaluation Criteria

Participating startups will be assessed according to their:

  • Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals
  • Ease of value capture via collaboration with the startup
  • Potential business impact
  • Maturity of the product/technology
  • Maturity of the team and the organization
  • Partnership readiness

Benefits

Benefits for winning startups include but are not limited to:

  • Sponsorship provided by Wakalua to pitch at the UNWTO Demo Day (venue and country tbc);
  • Application through the YouNoodle platform, which facilitates introduction and growth opportunities for startups;
  • Access to 90+ Venture Capitalists, Top Corporations and 150+ Countries;
  • Become a Member of the UNWTO Innovation Network;
  • Curated mentorship and acceleration programme from our partners;
  • Membership at the Startup Campuses;
  • Potential pilot project with private sector collaborators and institutions;
  • Potential seed funding;
  • Incubation services in Les Roches Spark Innovation Center, including 3 months accommodation in Crans-Montana, provided by the Sommet Education group.

For more details and application: https://www.unwto.org/unwto-awake-tourism-challenge

Deadline for candidatures: 30 June 2022

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