Deadline! UNWTO Awake Tourism Start-up Challenge

UNWTO is calling on startups everywhere to put forward their ideas for meeting the biggest challenges our sector is facing and for making tourism a champion of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Startups are invited to participate provided that they:

• Apply to 1 of the 6 challenges
• Include 1 or more SDGs
• Are innovative in nature and provide value-added solutions
• Are sustainability-driven
• Are scalable, with potential for international growth and potential to be applied in corporations and destinations (countries, regions)
• Are an Early Stage or Series A startups
• Have a tested pilot and business plan
• Have been accelerated before
• Have a full-time team already in place

The 12 most disruptive startups (2 for each of the Challenges) will be given support to scale-up. UNWTO will present the best ideas to its Member States, Affiliate Members and investors, providing them with a unique networking opportunity. Additional benefits include the chance to pitch at a special UNWTO Demo Day and access to technological support and to the UNWTO Innovation network, as well as a curated mentorship programme with both one-on-one and group training sessions on key topics such as Intellectual Property, sustainability in business and leadership, possible seed funding for female Startup founders from Ankh Impact Ventures, and incubation for 3 months at the SPARK Innovation Lab.

Applications are now open and will close 30 June 2022. The winning startups will be announced in October. To find out more and to apply, visit the webpage of the UNWTO Awake Tourism Challenge.