Loud trumpeting from vuvuzela horns, raucous applause, and standing ovations greeted each of the three finalists who presented on the main stage for the inaugural Adventure Innovation Challenge at the Adventure Travel World Summit in Hokkaido. The pitch competition featured three cutting-edge tourism entrepreneurs who competed for cash prizes totaling $7,500 and the opportunity for investment from the UnTours Foundation’s Reset Tourism Fund of up to $50,000.
Hosted by Jonathan Coleman, Co-CEO of the UnTours Foundation, the event offered an opportunity for small businesses to showcase their scalability, impact, and vision for the future to an audience of ATWS delegates and a panel of five judges. Before introducing the finalists, Coleman shared some background on the purpose of the Reset Tourism Fund, the goal of the Adventure Innovation Challenge, and some key stats with the audience.
“Tourism accounts for 10% of global GDP, 10% of global jobs, and 8% of global emissions,” he said. “Meanwhile, 80% of tourism enterprises are small businesses. Where our industry goes is where the world goes.”
It is precisely for this reason that the UnTours Foundation created the Reset Tourism Fund – to identify entrepreneurs whose businesses represent a better future of tourism and provide them with the flexible capital needed to take their businesses to the next level of scale and impact.
“So much of the negative impact of the industry is borne by the people, families, and ecosystems in the host communities,” Coleman said. “So as an industry we should be looking to elevate, source from, and finance those businesses that are bubbling up from within the communities and have positive community impact at their core.”
With these shared goals in mind, the Adventure Innovation Challenge came to fruition. All applicants were expected to demonstrate how they are building a more sustainable travel industry – such as by taking action toward climate resiliency, creating high-quality jobs within their communities, and advancing racial and gender equity – and the judges ranked them on these and other business viability criteria.
“UnTours Foundation’s Reset Tourism Fund invests in companies at the forefront of building a more sustainable and community-enhancing industry,” explained Alice Gifford, ATTA’s Event Content & Speaker Manager. “We wanted to bring the fund into the spotlight at ATWS this year and share how it can provide flexible capital to those businesses that are successfully integrating responsible tourism practices into their business models.”
Meet the Finalists
Three finalists selected from a wide range of applicants received full funding and complimentary registration to attend the Adventure Travel World Summit in Hokkaido, Japan. The variety of applicants – further showcased by the diversity of the three finalists – are a testament to the many ways the ambition, innovation, and heart of the adventure travel community use tourism as a force for good.
“I was so impressed with the care that the finalists put into embedding positive impact into their business models,” Coleman later shared. “They’re not just about making profits, but they’re also not just a charity waiting for donations. They were all perfect examples of how tourism can be used as a tool to solve huge community problems and how sustainable business models are really vital in building long-term solutions.”
Each finalist was given five minutes to pitch their business, share their slide deck, and explain how they would use the funds to expand their scale and impact. The three finalists in the order they presented were:
Zakia Moulaoui Guery, CEO of Invisible Cities
The first to take the stage, Zakia Moulaou Guery introduced UK-based Invisible Cities, a nonprofit initiative that works with local organizations to train people experiencing homelessness to become walking tour guides of their city. The social enterprise prioritizes teaching transferable skills that are necessary to become a great guide but will also serve each person in future pursuits: skills like public speaking, customer service, and group management. Guides are given extensive training and support as they practice storytelling, learn to manage their income, and gain confidence. Currently operating in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, York, Cardiff and Liverpool, Invisible Cities plans to next expand to Italy, where they have sourced an operating partner in Milan.
Juan Carlos Garcia, Kapawi Ecolodge and Trek Ecuador
The next finalist was Juan Carlos Garcia, representing Kapawi Ecolodge. Located in Ecuador’s Amazonian rainforest, Kapawi Ecolodge is an Indigenous community enterprise that was founded in 1996 to use ecotourism as an alternative to extractive industries. The ecolodge offers travelers the opportunity to engage in cultural experiences with the people who live there – directly supporting the Achuar Indigenous nation. Since opening, Kapawi Ecolodge has been the main source of income in the area – which includes more than ten Indigenous communities of the lower Pastaza River Basin. Their vision is to expand the operation to include more communities and protect more land, but to do so gradually, while protecting the cultural identity of the people who live there. By 2030, the enterprise hopes to slowly grow from benefitting 500 community members to 2,000 people spread across 16 Indigenous communities. The protected land would quadruple, from 120,000 acres to 500,000 acres.
Jeny Pokharel, SASANE Sisterhood Trekking and Travels
As the third finalist to pitch, Jeny Pokharel introduced her business with some eye opening statistics about human trafficking in Nepal – an average of 54 girls are trafficked every day, and only 7% manage to escape. Those who do live with a stigma, and often become outcasts in their communities. By founding SASANE Sisterhood Trekking and Travel, Pokharel aims to change that. The socially responsible tourism initiative trains Nepalese survivors of human trafficking to be guides, tour leaders, and experts in hospitality. Their employment gives them steady income and a respectable job, which reinstates their position in the community. The goal of this innovative approach is to reduce (and ultimately eliminate) further trafficking, gender-based violence, and child marriage in those communities. Travelers who participate in the tours and treks experience less-visited areas of Nepal which contributes to the economic development of villages that do not typically benefit from tourism.
Following each pitch, the judges were given five minutes to ask questions. The five judges representing a broad demographic within the adventure travel community were:
- Suzanne Al Houby, Founder of Rahhalah Explorers
- Gabby Beckford, Content Creator and Influencer
- Tullia Caballero Augi, Director of S-CAPE Travel
- Boratay Uysal, CSR and Sustainability Manager of Agoda
- Stevie Christie, Managing Director of Wilderness Scotland
Voting and Results
At the end of the three pitches, two rounds of voting took place. One was a real time audience poll based on the presentation from each finalist. Meanwhile, the panel of judges left the stage to tally their results. They graded each finalist on five categories:
- Positive impact on people (employees, host communities, and travelers)
- Positive impact on the planet
- Scalability and financial sustainability of the business and its impact
- Leadership and ability to inspire the industry to change
- Quality of the presentation
As the results came in, murmurs trickled throughout the crowd as audience members noted that it was interesting to see that the audience and judges voted directly opposite from one another. While the audience voted for SASANE Sisterhood to receive a year of ATTA Membership, the judges selected Kapawi Ecolodge as the overall winner. Both placed Invisible Cities in second place. Coleman was kind enough to offer some insight as to why that may have happened.
“I think the judges’ decision to rank Kapawi in first place came down to the strength of their business model and the fact that it had a stronger environmental focus,” he said. “The beautiful thing about this event is that all three were deserving, so I was actually very pleased that the results went as they did – meaning the awards were shared more evenly amongst the three finalists.”
In later conversations, many delegates agreed they did not envy the judges who had to ultimately choose a winner – all three pitches were executed with precision, heart, and purpose, and each clearly conveyed the mission of their business.
“As each of the finalists pitched their stories on stage, you could feel the reaction in the audience, how inspired and awed we felt, even close to tears at times,” said Mira Anselmi, ATTA’s Vice President of Community. “I hope the destination representatives and tour operators in the audience are inspired to think about the underserved populations in their own communities who could benefit from similar initiatives. I’d also love to see the media pick up their stories and give some exposure to the incredible work they are doing.”
The UnTours Foundation Reset Tourism Fund is actively fundraising and investing in businesses year round. To become a philanthropic partner or to apply for financing, learn more at untoursfoundation.org/reset-tourism-fund/
