4th Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition

Food tourism has become one of the most dynamic and creative segments of tourism and, at the same time, has naturally positioned itself as an element of diversification of tourism with a high impact on the promotion of sustainable development at the regional and local levels.

Gastronomy tourism stimulates entrepreneurship and the generation of new companies and organizations that necessarily affect other industries transversally and fosters values such as:

• Sustainability based on maintaining a balance between economic growth and gastronomic culture and heritage
• The quality of initiatives from production to experience, along the entire tourism value chain
• Authentic communication and a coherent narrative of gastronomic offerings with the participation of all the stakeholders of the sector; from chefs to the media
• Cooperation among all actors throughout the entire value chain of the gastronomic and tourism sector
• Authenticity by highlighting cultural heritage, local products and cultural values
• Gastronomic tourism is in itself, a stimulus to creativity, innovation and sustainable growth where startups with disruptive and open visions can propose new future scenarios that have a positive and transversal impact on various sectors so that they can collaborate and contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The competition

• New Technologies
  • Startups that are developing and promoting a startup with a high technological component to provide solutions or new services related to the Gastronomic Tourism sector.
• Local Impact
  • Startups that are developing and promoting a project with a high component of transformation and social improvement in its area of implementation and that are attached to the Gastronomic Tourism sector.
• Sustainability and Waste
  • Startups that are developing and promoting a project with a high component of sustainability and/or food waste management related to the impact generated by tourists.

Benefits

• Mentoring by UNWTO and top partners.
• Tailored support for your startup.
• Investment opportunities.
• Form part of the UNWTO Innovation Network.
• Scholarship opportunities for the Tourism Online Academy.
• Opportunity to present your startup at the 8th UNWTO Gastronomy Tourism Forum in San Sebastián, Spain (October 2023).
• Use of a space in the LABe- Digital Gastronomy Lab facilities for 6 months.
• Participate as a finalist company in the corresponding edition of Culinary Action! – On the road, the first foodtech startup competition in roadshow format.
• Advanced Plan of the GOe Digital Community for 6 months, which is the first digital community within the 360º gastronomy sector.

Criteria

• Scope into the Gastronomy Tourism Sector
• Innovation: Degree of comparative disruptiveness/innovation in the sector (global level); not technological component required.
• Social Impact of the Start-up: Focused on meeting unmet social needs in different realms, to foster employability of young and/or vulnerable people, depopulation of the territory, population aging and/or gender equality; and with tangible indicators to that effect.
• Traction: Capacity to transform the localized environment; ability to generate a change in society, improving the social conditions of the beneficiary groups and/or promoting their recognition before society.
• A tested MVP: product or service prototype, tested and tested, with already measured or measurable results. Potential impact of the business: potential scalability/financial return and/or development of competitive advantages for the business in the short-medium term.
• Ease of value capture via collaboration with the Start-up: agile implementation in the short-medium term for co-development of products/services, optimizing the use of existing resources/infrastructure and ability to scale the product.
• Committed team. Team with explicit knowledge about the area of action; positive assessment of the endorsement of a public or private organization on the execution of the project.
• Adherence to the Sustainable Development Goals: Linking and tangible social impact metrics in relation to the priority SDG.

For more information, visit World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).