Application Deadline: 28 February 2022
Gastronomy tourism stimulates entrepreneurship and the generation of new companies and organizations that necessarily affect other industries transversally and fosters values such as:
- Sustainability based on maintaining a balance between economic growth and gastronomic culture and heritage
- The quality of initiatives from production to experience, along the entire tourism value chain
- Authentic communication and a coherent narrative of gastronomic offerings with the participation of all the stakeholders of the sector; from chefs to the media
- Cooperation among all actors throughout the entire value chain of the gastronomic and tourism sector
- Authenticity by highlighting cultural heritage, local products and cultural values
- Gastronomic tourism is in itself, a stimulus to creativity, innovation and sustainable growth where startups with disruptive and open visions can propose new future scenarios that have a positive and transversal impact on various sectors so that they can collaborate and contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
CRITERIA:
- Scope into the Gastronomy Tourism Sector
- Innovation: Degree of comparative disruptiveness / innovation in the sector (global level); not technological component required.
- Social Impact of the Start-up: Focused on meeting unmet social needs in different realms, to foster employability of young and/or vulnerable people, depopulation of the territory, population aging and/or gender equality; and with tangible indicators to that effect.
- Traction: Capacity to transform the localized environment; ability to generate a change in society, improving the social conditions of the beneficiary groups and / or promoting their recognition before society.
- A tested MVP: product or service prototype, tested and tested, with already measured or measurable results. ü Potential impact of the business: potential scalability/financial return and/or development of competitive advantages for the business in the short-medium term.
- Ease of value capture via collaboration with the Start-up: agile implementation in the short-medium term for co-development of products/services, optimizing the use of existing resources/infrastructure and ability to scale the product.
- Committed team. Team with explicit knowledge about the area of action; positive assessment of the endorsement of a public or private organization on the execution of the project
- Adherence to the Sustainable Development Goals: Linking and tangible social impact metrics in relation to the priority SDG.
THE COMPETITION:
New Technologies
Startups that are developing and promoting a startup with a high technological component to provide solutions or new services related to the Gastronomic Tourism sector.
Local Impact
Startups that are developing and promoting a project with a high component of transformation and social improvement in its area of implementation and that are attached to the Gastronomic Tourism sector.
Sustainability and Waste
Startups that are developing and promoting a project with a high component of sustainability and/or food waste management related to the impact generated by tourists
BENEFITS
- Mentoring by UNWTO and top partners
- Tailored support for your startup
- Investment opportunities
- Form part of the UNWTO Innovation Network
- Scholarship opportunities for the Tourism Online Academy
- Opportunity to present your startup at the 7th UNWTO Gastronomy Tourism Forum (Nara, Japan June 2022)
- Use of a space in the LABe- Digital Gastronomy Lab facilities for 6 months.
- Participate as a finalist company in the corresponding edition of Culinary Action! – On the road, the first foodtech startup competition in roadshow format.
- Advanced Plan of the GOe Digital Community for 6 months, which is the first digital community within the 360º gastronomy sector.
CALENDAR:
1 November 2021
Launch
28 February 2022
Deadline for applications
1 April 2022
Announcement of Startups on the Online Platform
May 2022
Announcement of winners and pitch session
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the UNWTO Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition