Tourexpi
More
than 120 entrepreneurs from nearly 70 countries around the World have presented
their projects in the competition for startups focused on technologies and
solutions in tourism for hotels and new business models created by UN Tourism
and promoted by Infecar. The challenge, which serves to identify entrepreneurs
in the sector, has culminated its edition with the election of ten finalists
from around the world and two winners, the startups Twistic and WeavAIR.
All
of them took part in the UN Tourism Tech Adventures on 19 and 20 February,
within the framework of DigiON, the Canary Islands Business Digitalization
Show, a meeting in which innovation was the protagonist against the backdrop of
the island of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands (Spain). The startups, which
presented their projects in pitch format, shared the stage with leading
industry professionals, including the Social Hub, Amadeus, Kerten Hospitality,
the Hague School of Hospitality, Atlantis Tecnología y Sistemas, Minor Hoteles,
the TUI Group and Federación de Empresarios de Hostelería y Turismo of the
Canary Islands.
Through
this challenge, UN Tourism and Infecar aimed to drive a revolution within the
tourism sector, with sustainability and innovation as the drivers of change.
Therefore, from the outset, the competition has aimed to focus on solutions
that help redefine the hotel landscape and identify new business models. All of
this in a sector that generated US$1.4 trillion in international tourism
revenue last year alone, when there were an estimated 1286 million
international tourists.
For
Natalia Bayona, Executive Director of UN Tourism: "From a pool of 120
startups from over 70 countries, the competition received technological and
AI-driven solutions that are aimed at revolutionizing hotels and forging new
sustainable business models. I would like to congratulate the 10 entrepreneurs
that were selected as finalists and will be accompanied for further
opportunities via our UN Tourism Innovation Network. They are vital within the
ever-evolving hospitality sector, redefining the tourism landscape with their
disruptive approaches!"
In
addition to personalized support for the startups, they have received mentoring
from UN Tourism and its partners as well as the possibility to be part of the
Innovation Network of the UN specialized agency for the tourism sector.
Likewise, given UN Tourism's commitment to education, the finalists have had
the opportunity to benefit from scholarships to study at the Tourism Online
Academy. The platform, which already has more than 25,000 students from over
150 countries, is a leading online learning center to meet the needs of those
who work in or want to enter the tourism sector.
Meet
the winning startups
The
winner in the category of Innovations in Digital Hospitality and New Business
Models was Twistic, a Spanish company that seeks to change the user
experience through mobile applications, digital signature or electronic tags.
It was joined as finalists by Czech startup Schulering, which has
created a professional platform that connects hospitality through learning. The
American startup Everhost, which works to make visitors feel like
locals when they arrive at a destination. Also the Emirati Sparkle Haze and
its commitment to big data and the use of Artificial Intelligence applied to
user experience and guest security and the Tunisian startup Ostel Flow that
offers new generation solutions based on the cloud.
In
the Sustainability Impact category, the work of the Canadian company WeavAIR,
which is dedicated to business intelligence solutions and remote auditing based
on satellite networks and IOT, stood out and the finalists were Senange
Eco, a sustainability consultancy dedicated to helping companies on their way
to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; the Dutch company Hotels
for Trees, which is committed to planting a tree every time a guest decides to
skip the daily cleaning of the room; the Spanish company Effiwaste, which
works to eliminate organic waste from the HORECA channel by measuring via SAAS;
and Purple Elephant ventures is a venture firm based in Nairobi,
Kenya. They design smart travel technology start-ups from scratch with a focus
on innovation in sustainable tourism.
Image
Credit: © UN Tourism
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