Startup from Portugal wins UN award for innovation in tourism
The second edition of the World Tourism Organization’s global startups competition includes Portugal among the winners. Known as the “Awake Tourism Challenge”, the initiative focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, and how to make the tourism sector more inclusive and resilient.
The competition includes six core themes: local community participation, blue and green economies, sustainable and ecological capital creation, technology for good, educational tourism and women’s empowerment.
Participation of young people and local communities
Portugal is among the 15 winning projects announced this week: the startup Noytrall based in the city of Coimbra offers technology for hotels and guests. The company was honored alongside other startups from countries such as Germany, Qatar, South Korea, Spain, Panama, Namibia and Singapore, among others.
UNWTO states that the candidates offer innovative services with high consumer value, and with high levels of youth participation as well as the involvement of the communities in which they participate. This time they also had to check the use of technology to monitor and manage the environmental impact of tourism activities.
UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said that tourism has the power to transform the sector in an agile way and in line with the SDGs.
Center for Innovation and Scholarships
In all, there were more than 2,000 entries from 120 countries. Most applicants came from Europe, the Americas and Africa, followed by Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The judges chose 15 wins from the 30 finalists.
With the award, the winning startups will start a three-month incubation period at Spart Crans-Montana, which is the Les Roches Innovation Center of the Sommet Education Group.
There, they will be accompanied by mentors and a network of activities with access to a space for work and creation. In addition, winners will receive UNWTO scholarships and participate in global communication campaigns to showcase their activities.
More information about the winners can be found on the page in English: