Deadline: 31-Jul-20
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through its innovation laboratory IDB Lab and in collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO ), is seeking to identify business models to transform and revitalize the tourism sector. To this end, it has launched an innovation challenge to which both public and private sector organizations
The challenge aims to identify innovations in two categories: development of the tourism labor force, which needs to acquire new digital skills for the recovery phase, and environmental sustainability, which includes implementing waste management measures through circular economy models as well as climate-smart agricultural practices.
The Challenge
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through its innovation laboratory, IDB Lab, and in collaboration with the the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), seeks to identify business models that aim to transform and revitalize the tourism sector in 15 target countries: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
To be considered, these models must have the following four characteristics:
- Introduce innovations in at least two defined categories:
- workforce development, or
- environmental sustainability (which includes safeguarding biodiversity, adopting waste management measures, circular economy models, and/or climate smart agricultural practices)
- Use innovative and disruptive technologies
- Demonstrate financial sustainability
- Contribute to the country’s economic, social, and environmental impact
Areas of Innovation
- Adoption of innovative technologies to compete at a global level improving the tourism experience and ensuring consumer protection and confidence.
- A skilled tourism workforce should possess new digital skills useful for the recovery phase, including a mix of competencies for product development, marketing and market intelligence, among others.
- Environmental sustainability in the tourism supply chains must favor measures to conserve energy, water, and transition to circular economy approaches to reduce natural resource use and utilize climate-smart agricultural innovations and technologies.
Funding Information
- Requests for non-reimbursable financing for technical assistance can go from US$250,000 to US$500,000. In the case of loans, amounts can range from US$500,000 to US$2,000,000.
- Applicants will be expected to contribute with at least 50% of the project’s total budget.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants from the 48 member countries of the IDB Group are invited to participate, including innovators and entrepreneurs with ready-to-implement solutions, destination marketing organizations, businesses, public innovation agencies, social enterprises, NGOs, and similar applicants with demonstrated expertise in the tourism sector.
- Applicants not located and registered in the target country where the project will be implemented, will only be considered if applying in partnership with a local organization registered in said target country.
For more information, visit https://www.iadb.org/en/news/idb-lab-launches-innovation-challenge-revitalize-tourism-sector-15-countries