Guyana among countries selected for IDB tourism project design

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through its innovation laboratory – IDB Lab, has announced that eight proposals were selected for project design under the Beyond Tourism Challenge . 
Guyana was along the list of applicant countries selected, which included Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Haiti, Panam,a and Trinidad and Tobago.
Through collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the Beyond Tourism Challenge was launched in June, seeking to stimulate reimagining the sector post-COVID, while embracing digital transformation.
“The challenge looked to identify innovations in two categories: development of the tourism workforce, in need of acquiring new digital skills for the recovery phase post-COVID and environmental sustainability, to implement clean technologies and circular economy models, climate-smart agricultural practices, and protection of natural habitats,” the IDB said.
The Challenge attracted Public and Private Sector candidates from around the world to implement projects in the 15 target countries: The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
A full 214 applications were submitted from organisations in 28 countries, with proposals ranging from waste management and safety protocols to preservation of natural capital and eco-tourism.  Evaluation criteria included the degree of innovation, the degree of social and environmental impact, scalability potential, financial sustainability, and viability of execution.
“An internal due diligence process to evaluate the capacity of the applicant entities was conducted by IDB Group specialists, and the UNWTO also provided its technical expertise during the evaluation process. Selected applicants will initiate project design towards being considered for IDB Lab financing to pilot their innovative models in the eight mentioned countries. These selected applicants will become part of IDB Group’s network of global innovators working in the Region to reinvent the tourism industry and support its recovery efforts,” the Bank said.
Guyana had proposed “Safe Lodges Equal Safe Guests”, which encompassed the design and roll-out of health and safety protocols for visitors and host communities, a mobile tracing and tracking system, and upskilling of tourism operators to allow for a safe reopening of eco-tourism in Guyana’s magnificent Northern Rupununi region.
“In Barbados, the focus was “Better Batteries” or an energy-as-a-service model to accelerate the hotel industry´s access to renewable energy, utilising a battery-storage solution with an IoT [Internet of Things] framework enabling external control and data analytics.
Costa Rica suggested an “INTO Experiential Camps & Lodges”, which is dubbed as a platform to bring together social eco-tourism with land and marine conservation towards regenerative interaction with nature and oneself.
Over in the Dominican Republic, the winning project was the “Green Fins Hub – Digital scaling for sustainable marine tourism”, a first-of-its-kind online platform to empower marine tourism businesses to measurably improve compliance with internationally-recognised environmental standards, safeguard biodiversity, and stimulate green tourism.