As an agent for revitalising the tourism sector, SEGITTUR is an official partner of the European Commission EUvsVirus Hackathon and COVID-19 Startup Europe Awards, which is to take place between the 24th and 26th April.
The Hackathon, organised by the European Commission Research and Innovation department in collaboration with the EU Member States, aims to develop possible multi-disciplinary solutions to fight against COVID-19 and other illnesses.
During the Hackathon, up to a total of 37 challenges relating to health, business continuity, political and social cohesion, distance learning, remote working and digital financing will be debated. All these challenges are related to the current economic and social situation caused by COVID-19.
Tourism is one of the areas invited to participate in the EUvsVirus Hackathon and propose innovative solutions to the huge challenges the sector is facing: How can digital tools and new business models enable the services sector to provide value to customers?
The development of new business models linked to tourism and systems that allow companies to guarantee their employees’ safety are some of the issues that may be solved during this Hackathon.
Participation in these challenges is an opportunity to contribute ideas from within the tourism sector, but also to present the need for solutions and funding for socio-economic specificities to the European Commission.
Innovators, companies, start-ups, universities, students, investments, civil servants from all of Europe and companies on a global, provincial, regional or national level may participate in this Hackathon to provide solutions, ideas, inventions or definitions of problems and challenges.
Hackathon ceremony
On 1 May, coinciding with Labour Day, the awards ceremony will take place via live stream and the winners of the Pan-EU Hackathon will be announced. This date has been chosen for its importance to projects providing innovative ideas to support employment, entrepreneurship and economic recovery.
Those interested in participating can sign up at the following link: https://euvsvirus.org/.
COVID-19 tourism Startup Europe Awards: begins 2 May
The next phase, led by the European Commission DG Connect and implemented by Finnova, will begin with support for each winner in the search for EU grants (up to €2.5 million and up to €15 million in public-private investment). Then, the regional competitions will begin across the whole of the EU to find innovative tourism solutions to fight against COVID-19.
