UNWTO Awake Tourism Challenge & Startup Support Program to Accelerate Sustainability

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has launched the Awake Tourism Challenge, a competition and program to find and support innovative startups working to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Eligibility:

Startups from all walks of life, from all over the world and all economic sectors are invited to participate.

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

Categories:

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.

Benefits:

Benefits for winning startups include but are not limited to:

1. Pitch at a UNWTO Demo Day.

2. Curated mentorship programme including one-on-one and in-group sessions focused on Intellectual Property (IP), sustainability, business and leadership.

3. Connection to the UNWTO Innovation Network for meeting public and private stakeholders to explore funding and piloting opportunities.

4. Potential matchmaking with partners to scale up the startups, including investors, corporations and governments.

5. Potential seed funding.

Deadline to submit your application: October 15, 2022

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