CAF and UN Tourism join forces to promote sustainable tourism innovation

CAF -development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and UN Tourism have signed a cooperation agreement to launch the Green Projects Innovation Challenge: Transforming the Tourism Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This initiative invites startups, entrepreneurs, and tourism companies from Latin America and the Caribbean to submit proposals for green projects that use new technologies and creative approaches to address the sector’s challenges and contribute to environmental sustainability. The agreement was signed by UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili and CAF Executive President Sergio Díaz-Granados.

"This challenge represents an opportunity to drive innovative solutions that reduce the environmental impact of tourism and improve the industry’s resilience to climate change, while generating tangible benefits for local communities,” said Sergio Díaz-Granados.

This initiative aims to support innovative and visionary startups, ventures, and tourism companies that develop transformative and ingenious solutions to address the industry's challenges through green projects. It seeks to benefit local communities in tourist destinations while ensuring the conservation and regeneration of the ecosystems and biodiversity of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Challenge aims to strengthen the role of tourism in addressing local issues and promote more ventures based on economic, social, and environmental sustainability, considering that today’s tourists prioritize these offers when choosing destinations.

We expect innovative ideas to develop environmentally responsible and low-carbon tourism, climate-resilient tourism, conservation projects for protected areas through tourism, and projects that promote the regeneration of ecosystems and their biodiversity in tourist destinations.

According to Oscar Rueda, CAF’s Director of Sustainable Tourism, "We want to catalyze green ventures with scalability, replicability, and transformative potential, setting the stage for Regenerative Tourism in our region."

"Tourism generates significant positive externalities and has a global multiplier effect if we can channel investments into sustainable tourism ventures, especially in developing countries,” he added.

The challenge was launched on January 26 during the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid.

The agreement between CAF and UN Tourism is part of a memorandum of understanding signed in 2021 to join efforts in promoting innovation, investments, and tourism sustainability in the region.