Booking.com has launched Booking.com Booster, its new accelerator programme that aims to identify, mentor and fund startups committed to sustainable tourism such as preserving cultural heritage and promoting tourism that supports local economies/communities.
The new programme is an extension of Booking.com Cares, an internal company initiative where employees partner with local NGOs on projects that help improve destinations worldwide.
For the booster programme, between eight and 12 startups will be selected to spend three weeks in June at Booking.com headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Two representatives from each startup will have the opportunity to learn about scaling their business, growing and measuring their social impact, organisational growth, marketing, enhancing their value proposition, investing, financial practices and more.
At the end of the three-week programme the startups will pitch their scaling plan to the panel of judges and ask for a grant of anywhere between €100,000 to €500.000 to execute their plan.
Booking.com’s experts will be available to mentor startups in executing their scaling plan. Mentorship will be available for six to nine months, starting during the three-week booster programme in Amsterdam.
Gillian Tans: Helps ventures in sustainable tourism accelerate their growth
“Through Booking.com Booster we want to help ventures in sustainable tourism accelerate their growth in order to maximise the impact they can have globally,” said Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com
“By identifying and funding these outstanding startups, sharing our expertise and working together, we can explore and learn how best to protect the future of the destinations we love so much so that our great-great-grandchildren can continue to enjoy them for years to come,”
The three-week booster programme has been co-designed with partner organisation, Impact Hub.
Applications for the booster programme is open until March 1, 2017. Apply here.
