The Africa Youth in Tourism Innovation Challenge (AYTIC) is an exclusive platform being provided to innovative African youth in travel and tourism who are looking for funding, partnership and mentorship opportunities to present their projects to the global marketplace to find the required support.

The winner receives grant seed in cash and in-kind to the value of US$10 000, with US$1 000 to US$1 500 in cash to support his or her project. 

The first and second runner up gets US$5 000 grant seed in cash and in-kind, with US$500 to US$1 000 in cash to support their projects.

Other benefits include complimentary enrolment for short courses provided by UNWTO, mentorship, partnership, potential funding support and career opportunities as well as the opportunity to be part of an established network of Africa Youth in Tourism Mentors and Innovators and enrolment into the Africa Tourism Innovation Hub.

The AYTIC is held annually along with the Africa Youth in Tourism Innovation Summit. Next year’s summit will take place in Windhoek, Namibia, from May 28-31.

Ahead of its sixth edition next year, Tourism Update is looking at what the judges are looking for when deciding the winner.

The judges will specifically look at the following:

• The vision, distinctiveness, authenticity, and logic of the product/service.
• Evidence of innovation in travel and tourism or associated industry challenges being solved in Africa – such as technical, social entrepreneurship, educational, youth empowerment and job creation, environmental sustainability, and community development.
• Is the project viable?  
• What effect will the project have on travel and tourism, local communities, and/or connected industries?

Barry Clemens, Chairperson of the AYTIC, stressed that perhaps just as, if not more, important is the attitude of the competitors.

“It is crucial for the youth to have a platform to test and improve themselves in the tourism industry. It is also vital for them to receive mentorship. They have an opportunity to feature pitches of their companies or products in front of a very valuable audience. The challenge is to have a quality product to be part of the top 10.

“The judges have been selected from people in the industry that are very important to youth development and have skills to develop entrepreneurship and help competitors in the tourism industry,” Clemens told Tourism Update at this year’s event.

Unrivalled exposure

Previous winners of the AYTIC have also said that the Challenge provides unbelievable exposure.

“The most valuable takeaway from the Challenge was the exposure that it got us. It was fantastic setting out our offering and product in front of so many people,” said South African Scott Blount, who won the Challenge for his product TripClip in 2022.

Ghanaian, Eugene Allotey, who won the Challenge for his product Creative Bibini in 2021 added: “Going through the process of winning an award endorsed by UNWTO, we have some hotels using our solutions currently and this has given us great insights into the attitudes of customers, and the analytics behind our software are helping us understand customers in the hospitality and tourism space.” 

Interested youth can click here to enter the challenge. Everyone who enters the competition must be 35 years old or younger.