Deadline: 31-Oct-25
UN Tourism has launched the Safe Destinations Challenge, an initiative aimed at identifying innovative solutions that position the tourism sector as a driver of resilience, safety, and sustainability. This initiative seeks to safeguard tourism destinations as well as the people who live in and visit them. The challenge targets startups, entrepreneurs, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and public-sector stakeholders across UN Tourism Member States in Europe.
It particularly encourages collaboration between public and private actors within the tourism value chain. The goal is to generate innovative responses to the growing complexity of challenges in the tourism industry—especially those related to natural hazards, climate change, health emergencies, and cyber threats.
The key objectives of the challenge include identifying and supporting new and emerging actors who are developing scalable solutions to enhance the safety, security, and resilience of European tourism destinations. By crowdsourcing practical innovations, the initiative aims to build the capacity of destinations to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises.
It also focuses on ensuring that successful ideas can be adapted for replication across diverse European destinations, especially those that are seasonal, remote, or heavily reliant on tourism. The challenge aligns with the SAFE-D framework and encourages the sharing of best practices between sectors.
Applicants are invited to submit their proposals under three core categories.
Category 1 focuses on resilience to natural, climate, and health-related hazards, supporting solutions such as AI-based flood or disease forecasting tools, smart evacuation systems, and real-time health alert platforms.
Category 2 addresses safety, security, and cyber threats, encouraging innovations like crowd management systems, localized safety apps, GIS tracking tools, and cybersecurity solutions for infrastructure and traveler protection.
Category 3 emphasizes crisis communication and post-incident response, with solutions designed to support real-time, multilingual alerts, information sharing platforms, and systems to coordinate traveler movement and reduce harm after emergencies such as terrorist attacks.
Participants selected through the challenge will receive a wide range of benefits. These include the opportunity to pitch their solutions at the UN Tourism Tech Adventures, receive mentorship from UN Tourism partners, and gain global visibility through media coverage and promotion on UN Tourism platforms.
Additional benefits include tailored project support, opportunities to pilot or scale solutions, membership in the UN Tourism Innovation Network, and scholarship opportunities through the UN Tourism Online Academy.
To be eligible, applicants must be based in the European Region of UN Tourism and can be either individuals or legally registered entities. They must be of legal age and legally able to enter into contracts, and their representatives must not have been convicted of serious crimes.
Eligible solutions should demonstrate innovation or disruption, use emerging technologies, promote sustainable and community-inclusive models, and be scalable across multiple tourism destinations. Applicants should either have a minimum viable product (MVP) or a fundable, well-defined project idea ready for implementation.
Certain ineligibility conditions apply. Participants who fail to meet any of the eligibility requirements at any stage will be excluded. Employees of UN Tourism and minors are not permitted to apply. Submissions that contain false or incomplete information will be disqualified.
UN Tourism also reserves the right to remove participants who act in bad faith, violate the challenge’s values, breach third-party rights, or damage the reputation of UN Tourism. Such disqualifications will not entitle excluded participants to make claims for compensation or damages.
For more information, visit UN Tourism.
