The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a United Nations specialized agency, and Globalia, a tourism group in Spain and Latin America, announced the launch of the first edition of UNWTO Tourism Startup Competition. The initiative aims to find the best solutions offered by emerging and disruptive technologies. One of the themes of this competition is to give visibility to projects that are committed to enhancing sustainability in tourism. UNWTO and Globalia have enlisted the innovation consultancy firm Barrabés.biz, which boasts more than 20 years’ of experience in the creation, connection, and activation of entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. To broaden the scope of the competition and to facilitate the registration of interested startups, the programme will be implemented through the digital platform YouNoodle, a leading Silicon Valley company in the startup evaluation space at the global level. “Innovation and tourism investment are not ends in themselves; they are means to develop better tourism products, to improve the governance of tourism and to make the most of the proven sustainability of tourism, by creating jobs and generating opportunities," said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili. So who can participate?

Startups must present business models that are related to at least one of four main areas:

• The future of travel

• The tourism experience

• Environmental impact

• Community development

The projects will be evaluated according to the criteria: uniqueness and viability of the solution, potential impact, business model, scalability and team profile. And the winners of this competition will have the opportunity to be part of the leading companies in the tourism sector.

To participate, hurry up and apply here, applications are open from June 26, 2018, to September 3, 2018.