UNWTO urges entrepreneurs and innovators to accelerate tourism recovery

 Thursday, March 26, 2020 

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in coordination with the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently urged the entrepreneurs and innovators to contribute new ideas and solutions to help the tourism industry. The requirement in light of the unprecedented challenge the tourism sector is facing due to the coronavirus pandemic. UNWTO and WHO have hence asked innovators and entrepreneurs to support the tourism sector to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The tourism industry is perhaps the worst-hit sector harshly affected by the coronavirus spread. Millions of people from the industry have been rendered jobless since the virus outbreak. A specialised tourism agency of the United Nations has considered innovation as a response to deal with the pandemic. UNWTO and WH have already started working together to highlight the tourism sector in the future recovery efforts and to mitigate the impact of the virus outbreak on the industry. The organisations have also liaised closely with governments and the private sector to boost international collaboration and solidarity.

Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General, UNWTO said in a statement that the tourism sector has been hit the hardest by COVID-19. He mentions that the response to fight the damage should be strong and united. He said that embracing innovation is necessary. He officially called upon all entrepreneurs and innovators to share developed ideas that can be put into action. He added that UNWTO wants to hear ideas that will help communities recover from this crisis, economically and socially, as well as ideas that can contribute to the public health response.

All participants are required to demonstrate how their ideas can help tourism in its response to COVID-19. All ideas should be piloted and ready to scale-up with a business plan in place. The ideas should also have the potential to be implemented in several countries.

The competition has already been declared live and applications will be available till April 10^th 2020. The winners of the “Healing Solutions for Tourism Challenge” will be invited to pitch their ideas to representatives of more than 150 governments. They will also enjoy access to the UNWTO Innovation Network, which includes hundreds of start-ups and leading businesses from across the tourism sector.

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