New Ideas Expected Through Tourism Innovation Incubator

Several new and innovative ideas are expected to be generated within tourism, through the recently launched Tourism Innovation Incubator.

Speaking at the launch, held during Tourism Awareness Week on September 30, Portfolio Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, said that tourism is about ideas and creating experiences.

“The idea of this Incubator is to create a framework to mine, hone, convert and monetise ideas,” Minister Bartlett said.

“The more ideas that we can generate within tourism is the more experiences we can develop, and the more experiences we develop is the more attractive we are to visitors,” he added, noting that visitors travel to a destination to consume and develop their passions.

The Minister outlined that the Incubator will offer numerous services, including executing workshops with participants in the refining of their ideas; providing research support; training in pitch delivery; providing opportunities for mentorship and networking; teaching participants about key topics, such as intellectual property and the importance of being formalised through informational sessions, and sourcing potential partners or investors to help participants in prototype and product development.

The initiative, which is being led by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), is guided by the Blue Ocean Strategy, which calls for the creation of business models that depart from traditional ones, based on competition and standardisation.

Selection of ideas for the Incubator will be done by a committee of members from TEF and the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ). In addition to being tourism products or representing technology in tourism, each idea must be an innovation or invention that will add value.

Each participant will be required to outline how their idea will add value to the tourism landscape and provide indicators for measuring the same, such as tourism spend, visitor satisfaction, and contribution to the tourism workforce. The idea must also have a significant effect on the tourism industry.

Persons interested in participating in the Incubator must be 18 years or older by the October 14 submission deadline.

Additional submission criteria for the Tourism Innovation Incubator can be found on TEF’s website at https://tef.gov.jm/tourism-incubator/.