Dubai Tourism reveals the 10 finalists of its six-week accelerator programme
This year, Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) launched the third edition of its Futurism Programme in collaboration with the leading professional services company Accenture. The programme is a zero-equity accelerator initiative aimed at providing a platform for technology startups from all over the world to bring about a shift within the industry ecosystem and help create innovative tourism experiences. Dubai Tourism has now released the list of 10 finalists for this year’s international Futurism Programme, in an announcement that came last week.
The third edition of the Futurism programme helped entrepreneurs in driving various Futurism themes, such as ‘phygital’ experience, digitising operations, connected travel, conscious travel, first choice destination, and hyper personalisation, by providing them with the opportunity to share their innovative technology solutions.
The winner and runner-up can win a prize of Dh100,000 ($27,220.2) along with the opportunity to secure future funding, an office space, licensing, and relevant visas in Dubai.
This year’s programme has attracted a lot of entrepreneurs worldwide. Over 155 startups submitted their applications before the given deadline. A panel of judges comprising of the Programme’s partners shortlisted the 10 most innovative ideas for the final round, which are Ads-Flight, Stayhopper, Ariadne Maps, Stayology, Airlines Technology, Further Network, Xandar Kardian, Omniflow S.A, Cerebri AI, and Chatdesk.
The finalists will now undergo a six-week accelerator programme, which features one-on-one mentorships, networking with key industry partners, and bootcamp sessions, where the Dubai Tourism along with its partners will guide each one of them in finalizing pilot projects and the ways in which they could use their innovative solutions across the Dubai’s tourism sector.
The finalists will then be able to pitch to a jury of investors, business owners, and venture capitalists at GITEX Future Stars, the largest startup event in Middle East, South East Asia, and Africa, which is going to be hosted at the GITEX Technology Week in October, 2019.
Yousuf Lootah, the executive director of Dubai Tourism, said that the high level of interest shown in the Futurism Programme by startups worldwide is a result of their efforts to take the tourism industry to digital era, which is in line with the 10x initiative launched by the Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to keep Dubai 10 years ahead of other world cities and retain its reputation as the regional technology hub.
According to Norberto Cibien, the Products Client Service Group lead at Accenture Middle East & Turkey, Accenture is committed and proud to bring the best startups into the Dubai ecosystem to help the region's Travel and Tourism grow through their collaboration with Dubai Tourism.
Apart from Accenture, this year’s Futurism Programme is also being supported by the major industry partners and investors from a variety of sectors ranging from legal, aviation, hospitality, travel, transportation, technology, and finance. The strategic partners include Emaar Hospitality Group, the Emirates Group, Seera Group, industry partners Atlantis the Palm and the Accor Hotels. Moreover, the partnership network comprises of Careem, Wamda, Shorooq Investments, Middle East Venture Partners, Amazon, Microsoft, Alteryx, Dentons and Dubai SME.
GITEX Future Stars is the Middle East, North Africa & South Asia’s biggest event gathering the hottest startups from 75 countries. Interested in attending? Click HERE