• 315 tourism businesses in Egypt, Mexico, South Africa and Kenya will receive six months’ professional training, business mentoring and financial support
• Programme targeted at organisations with clear and innovative social, technological or environmental business models and with the objective of strengthening collaboration between the tourism sector in destinations and the German and European markets
• The programme is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Berlin, 02 June 2021. enpact and the TUI Care Foundation today announced the start of a joint Tourism Recovery Programme which will support young founders in the travel and tourism industry. Applications are open until 20^th June for micro, small, and medium-sized tourism enterprises in Egypt, Mexico, South Africa and Kenya.

The Tourism Recovery Programme is designed to support innovative tourism businesses on their path of economic recovery. The future of tourism depends on resilient tourism businesses offering sustainable products and services, particularly in developing and emerging economies. With the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals at its core, the Tourism Recovery Programme builds capacity around leadership, resilience, sustainability, innovation, and digital transformation. Additionally, the aim is to create a flourishing international network of tourism businesses.

Under the six-month programme, participating businesses will have the opportunity to gain access to dedicated mentoring, business development training and financial support from the German government.

The mentoring programme provides tailored guidance through individual sessions with TUI experts and other global tourism professionals. Alongside this, the technical assistance component includes a virtual learning programme, peer-to-peer knowledge exchange, networking opportunities and support for participants in developing an internationalisation plan. The support package draws on the experience of the earlier COVID-19 Relief Programme for Tourism, where 352 participants from 150 tourism businesses from Mexico, Kenya, Indonesia and Jordan benefited from the same opportunity.

The Tourism Recovery Programme aims to empower travel and tourism businesses in the four target countries that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and which demonstrate a technologically, socially or environmentally innovative business model. Companies with existing ties to the German and European tourism sector or a commitment to expand are particularly relevant for the support provided by this programme.

The programme is part of the Empowering Entrepreneurship Initiative by enpact which was created to provide direct support for entrepreneurs in emerging markets. In 2020, the initiative launched with two programmes that provided support to 330 businesses in Egypt, Jordan, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia and Mexico in overcoming the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nasser Abu Saad, Founder of The Cabin Hostel, who participated in the programme in Jordan said: “Through online classes and learning new leadership techniques, we were able to overcome the challenges of this difficult time. The financial and technical support allowed us to continue offering our services.”

Eligible candidates can access the application procedure for the Tourism Recovery Programme on the TUI Care Foundation or enpact homepages:

www.tuicarefoundation.com/en/take-action/Tourism-Recovery-Programme 
www.enpact.org