UN Tourism has launched the second edition of its Women in Tech Startup Competition for the Middle East. The competition aims at nurturing and supporting women startup entrepreneurs in the field of sustainable tourism and technology across the region.
As the name suggests, the competition is open for women entrepreneurs who own a startup that works in tourism or any of its allied sectors. They must also be an endeavor at its early stage, idea stage, or Series A stage of their journey. Applications are open for the following three categories:
- People and Skills: this category is for startups with environmental and sustainable approaches in education tech, social connectivity, wellness, or health, with cross-cutting benefits with tourism.
- Green Travel Solutions: For startups that use environmentally friendly and sustainable approaches in green tech, green infrastructure, travel and logistics, urban development, or rural development, with cross-cutting benefits with tourism.
- Market Innovators: For startups working with emergent technologies applied to tourism.
UN Tourism has called for support from key companies, such as Almosafer, Plug and Play, AIM, The Bench, Impulse4Women, and Bilakatu, who will give their valuable feedback, active mentorship, and support to the best entrepreneurial solutions. This year’s applications are to be processed through Plug and Play’s platform. The winner will have the golden opportunity to be at the global UN Tourism Innovation Network.
The launch of this competition was announced at the AIM Congress, a leading investment platform, in Abu Dhabi, during a special UN Tourism Investment Forum session titled “Investing in Innovation and Enabling Women Entrepreneurs”.
The second edition of this competition stems from the success of the inaugural session, with over 140 startups and SMEs applying from 11 countries. The winners were Fosha (Egypt), Sparkle Haze (UAE), Plastus Biotech (Saudi Arabia), and Xenios Academy (UAE). The winners were announced in Riyadh on World Tourism Day 2023, 17th September.