• Four innovative startups from Uganda and Mauritius have been immersed in an intensive two-week online bootcamp of workshops and peer-to-peer activities focused on boosting business development and improving business pitches.
• Designed for travel and tourism startups focusing on social impact and sustainable development, the Travel Tech 4 Good Accelerator is a joint initiative by the TUI Care Foundation and enpact e.V. which is supported by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Over the past two weeks, the purpose-driven entrepreneurs of Tripxio, SINA Village, Mauritius Conscious and 54HOMES have been supported by numerous mentors, experts and coaches, who boosted their growth both personally and professionally. The content of the programme varied from day to day; from presentations by project partners to expert workshops and from deep dive mentoring sessions to peer-to-peer discussions. Tourism specialists hosted workshops in their fields of expertise to provide the entrepreneurs with new insights and to encourage out-of-the-box thinking. Additionally, the startups had one-to-one sessions with each mentor, to give the entrepreneurs the opportunity to ask the mentors all of their questions.

More than 20 mentoring and coaching sessions took place, with many led by experts from TUI, the world’s leading tourism business. Five TUI experts from across Europe volunteered for the programme. The sessions focused on entrepreneurial thinking, including communication, user experience design, strategic planning, business development and data analytics. The programme 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 is invited to attend TUI Group’s Innovation Partnership Forum which takes place in early 2021.

David Gonahasa, Founder and Managing Director at Tripxo, summarizes: “The most valuable lessons I’ve learned are about how to build and scale up my business. It has been an amazing experience and I am sure this network helps me to grow Tripxio to what it can be in the future. ”

The virtual bootcamp had a deep and lasting impact on all participants, both mentors and entrepreneurs. Marco Morandini, Business Model Development Owner for TUI Musement and one of the participating mentors commented: "I am always impressed how I join a mentoring session and after we are finished I, myself, have learned so many new things that it is much more of a peer2peer learning than an actual mentoring in its traditional sense".

This successfully brings to a close the East African chapter of this joint initiative from the TUI Care Foundation and enpact. Young entrepreneurs have been empowered for the future with support services and expertise. Their startups can move forward sustainably and with social impact in travel and tourism.