Booking.com to double support for start-ups and sustainable-tourism changemakers
Building on its successful launch in 2017, Booking.com, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies and a digital technology leader, on Monday announced supports for sustainable tourism in the coming year.
It will fund the 2018 Booking Booster Programme, a three-week accelerator in Amsterdam for social enterprise scale-ups in sustainable tourism, according to a press release on Monday. In addition to the 2 million pounds (nearly Bt87.8 million ) in grants awarded through Booking Booster, the company also announced plans to further expand its efforts to support organisations and individuals throughout the broader sustainable tourism industry.
Those efforts would include two new initiatives for a total of more than 4 million pounds in support available in 2018. The first new programme is the Booster Labs, a series of short, regionally focussed weekend programmes that are slated to run globally throughout 2018, dedicated to giving early-stage startups in sustainable tourism the insights, tools and skills they need to grow and increase their impact. The second new initiative is the Booking Cares Fund, a separate 2 million pound grant programme to champion individual non-profit changemakers in sustainable tourism and support their search for new and unexpected solutions to strengthen local communities, preserve and promote culture, protect natural resources and spread tourism activities more evenly.
In helping travellers to explore and experience more than 120,000 unique destinations all over the world, Booking.com also seeks to contribute to the ongoing health of these same destinations so that future generations could continue to enjoy them for years to come. The programmes and funds further this mission to make a positive impact globally, said the press release.
“The Booking Booster, our new Booking Booster Labs initiative and the Booking Cares Fund have all been specially designed to support important, innovative players in different sectors throughout the entire sustainable tourism ecosystem,” said Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com. “By identifying, funding and mentoring early stage start-ups, social enterprises scale-ups and the non-profit projects and changemakers from universities, governments and NGOs that bring them all together, we can help make an even more meaningful impact. We can empower people and organisations to affect real change to help further a healthy and sustainable future for thousands of destinations all around the world.”