315 Businesses across 4 Countries Work Together towards Tourism Recovery!
315 tourism businesses from Egypt, Mexico, South Africa and Kenya are teaming up to work towards the recovery of the tourism industry.
- The Tourism Recovery Programme was launched on the 12th of August by enpact and the TUI Care Foundation in a global virtual kick off session
- 945 participants from 315 tourism businesses in Egypt, Mexico, South Africa and Kenya will receive 6 months of training, dedicated mentoring and financial support
- The programme is currently recruiting experts from across the global tourism industry to become mentors of the participating businesses in November 2021 and support in maximizing their social, environmental or technologic impact potential
- The programme is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Berlin, 30 August 2021 – enpact and the TUI Care Foundation have officially launched the Tourism Recovery Programme on the 12th of August through a global kick off session that brought together 945 participants from 315 MSMEs from the Egyptian, Mexican, South African and Kenyan travel and tourism industries, as well as representatives from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, enpact and the TUI Care Foundation.
Lucia De Carlo, Head of the Division for the Cooperation with the Private Sector and Sustainable Economic Policy at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), representing the Ministry which supports the project, said when welcoming the participants during the kickoff event: “The promotion of sustainable development through tourism is more urgent than ever. The whole tourism value chain has been hit hard over the past year, due to the pandemic. Our measures help local tourism providers sustain themselves financially during the crisis, preserve their infrastructure, and prepare the industry for sustainable and resilient reconstruction.” Lucia De Carlo also expressed that she is glad to continue the cooperation with enpact and the TUI Care Foundation that started last year. “The programme has directly supported 330 companies from six countries with great success. It provided innovative entrepreneurs with a great deal of expertise, financial support, and valuable networks. Despite the ongoing crisis, the participants were able to gain more confidence and further develop and advance their businesses.
Felix Ruf, Head of Component of Sustainable Development through Tourism for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, also remarked during the kickoff event that “the programme is set up to support that tourism will emerge stronger from the crisis, as well as contribute to sustainable development with a broad impact tailored to suit the needs of the specific countries”. Ruf said: “We are very proud to have strong partners like enpact and the TUI Care Foundation.”
During the global kickoff event, Matthias Treutwein, Co-Founder and Managing Director of enpact, along with Alexander Panczuk, Executive Director of the TUI Care Foundation, also shared words of welcome and encouragement for the 315 tourism businesses, reflecting on the purpose behind the launch of the Tourism Recovery Programme and its desired impact.
The tourism industry contributes 10% of the global economic output and is responsible for 1 in every 10 jobs around the world. The Tourism Recovery Programme picks up on this industry potential by delivering a technical development plan for the participating businesses to support in their recovery and growth through the ongoing pandemic. The project provides a framework to maximize the impact of socially, environmentally or technologically innovative tourism enterprises while creating strong ties with the European travel market, thereby ensuring the infrastructural recovery of these travel destinations.
One such enterprise is Olarioi Safaris, a Maasai community-owned safari tour operator in Kenya. In the last four years, this company has sponsored 183 Maasai girls to enable them to attend primary school, high school and university.
Given that their human resources are located within the community, they have created income opportunities for over 37 Maasai who serve as their guides, have taught them English to help them become better communicators and sent them to driving schools.
In Egypt, VRTEEK is innovating the way we experience historical sites by providing immersive VR experiences. This solution increases the accessibility potential of tourism. The business provides a virtual tour of the famous El Muizz street in Cairo that is being developed together with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities VR experiences in over 300 tourism locations. Although their business model was focused on a B2B revenue stream, whereby they supplied for example virtual experiences to fairs and events, with the pandemic they are now the proud owners of their own B2C mobile app which can be accessed by anyone.
Meanwhile, Click & Drive Tours in South Africa, is Cape Town-based tour operator with a wide product offering. They work together with a community center in a township where they bring tourists to buy local crafts. This business wishes to accelerate their digital transformation and develop their online presence with the help of the Tourism Recovery Programme.
Under the 6-month programme, these participating businesses will have the opportunity to gain access to dedicated mentoring, business development support and direct financial support from the German government.
The mentoring programme, which will take place between November 2021 and January 2022, will provide tailored guidance through individual sessions with experts from across the global tourism ecosystem. enpact and the TUI Care Foundation are currently recruiting experienced professionals of the industry from a range of functional areas, which include finance, marketing, sales, sustainability and business or product development, among other fields of expertise.
Meanwhile, the technical assistance component has already started off with a self-paced online learning module on resilience and leadership. This fully virtual informal learning programme is implemented in three different dimensions:
- A foundational set of web-series on a variety of business-related topics such as digitalization, innovation and sustainability
- An in-depth knowledge component where the programme experts engage in a live Q&A with all participants
- Localised expertise sessions focused on the national reality of each of the 4 target countries
The Tourism Recovery Programme draws from the experience of the previous COVID-19 Relief Programme for Tourism, which concluded in June 2021. 352 participants from 150 tourism businesses from Mexico, Kenya, Indonesia and Jordan benefited from the same opportunity. Overall, 1213 direct jobs and over 3000 indirect stakeholders, suppliers and partner organisations were able to benefit from the programme.
Both the Tourism Recovery Programme and the COVID-19 Relief Programme for Tourism are part of the Empowering Entrepreneurship Initiative by enpact which was created to provide direct support for entrepreneurs in emerging markets and help them overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tourism industry professionals and business development experts wishing to apply to become a mentor can access the application procedure on the TUI Care Foundation or enpact homepages until the 12th of September or sign up directly through this link!
