Travel Tech 4 Good: East Africa

About the program

The Travel Tech for Good program powered by TUI Care Foundation and enpact e.V, supported by UNWTO, is a coaching program for entrepreneurs in the tourism space to support them with their business and growth.

In 2020, global travel warnings and restrictions due to the lockdown related to the pandemic had a massive impact on the tourism ecosystem, especially on startups operating in this space.

In December 2020, we launched the second edition of our Travel Tech for Good program – this time in East Africa to support the startups throughout the pandemic. Over the course of two weeks, four regional African Travel Tech businesses participated in an intense virtual accelerator program. They were supported by our network of tourism professionals, local and international mentors. The goal was to build capacities within the business that are supporting social impact and sustainable development. A special focus was put on the intention of developing scalable business models, with the respective requirements in financial structuring and the ability to scale the businesses by using innovative technologies.

The program ended with a public online pitch event which announced David Gonahasa, Founder of Tripxo as the winner of the Travel Tech 4 Good Pitch Event. In recognition of the excellent presentation and for making the most progress over the two week bootcamp, David Gonahasa was invited to attend TUI Group’s Innovation Partnership Forum which takes place in early 2021.

Meet the participants!

• Tripxio (Uganda) 

Tripxio is building the Shopify for tourism in Africa, helping tourism agents and entrepreneurs digitalize their business operations, create efficient eCommerce websites, develop, distribute, sell tourism products online and manage their backoffice operations.

Tripxio eliminates the technology challenges for tourism businesses to thrive enabling them to focus on their core business – Ensuring quality customer experiences.

Learn more about Tripxio

• Social Innovation Academy (SINA) Village (Uganda)

The SINA Village is operated by Social Innovation Academy (SINA) which tackles failing education and resulting unemployment in Africa through creating self-organized and freesponsible communities, where disadvantaged youth unleash their potential for positive change as social entrepreneurs. The SINA model has created four resilient and self-reliant communities establishing their own solutions instead of waiting for support from the outside. As a social enterprise itself, SINA generates revenues through the tourism sector and SINA members gain the skills and experiences necessary.

The portfolio of activities are:

1. Event venue
2. Training and Workshops of international participants (e.g. our “Purpose Safari”)
3. Accommodation in upcycled houses and Catering to guests and groups4. Social Innovation Museum
4. Customized Tours
5. Social Innovation Museum
6. Online and offline Shops Combined, SINA allows guests to gain insights into Ugandan life and the chance to interact with our scholars who create social innovations and social enterprises, as well as to visit our SINA Communities in the refugee camps for a truly unique experience.

Learn more about SINA

• Mauritius Conscious (Mauritius)

Mauritius Conscious is the pilot project of Travel Conscious, an online tour operator crafting sustainable holiday packages that contribute to the cultural preservation and environmental regeneration of destinations.

Our trips are bespoke and carbon compensated, offering offbeat itineraries for the independent traveller who wishes to make a positive impact and a human connection in the places (s)he visits. Through our Conscious Travel Assessment and Sustainability Consultancy, we help tourism SMEs understand their standing point in terms of sustainability, accompanying them to aim and achieve for international sustainability standards.

Learn more Mauritius Conscious

• Tulavo, formerly known as 54 homes (Uganda) 

Tulavo is an African continental online marketplace for affordable travel accommodation. The solution automates low cost, secure self-contained rooms all-over Africa to allow travellers get a deeper access to the remote Africa where there is limited internet connectivity and modern banking services.

Learn more about Tulavo