What does an app for sharing traditional Cape Verdean recipes that recommends gastronomic itineraries, a B2B platform to request certified tourist guides and a marketing platform for personalized tour packages have in common? All of them are digital solutions presented by young entrepreneurs to reinvent tourism in Cabo Verde in the post COVID-19 pandemic crisis!

The challenge was launched by the Accelerator Lab and Cabo Verde Digital with the purpose to create a proper environment for bringing together communities, business and innovators in the development of innovative digital solution that actually responds to real existing needs, connecting the innovative capacity to market and people.

Tourism was the elected sector to develop this initiative. Cabo Verde as Small Islands Developing State highly dependent on tourism, which represents more than 25% of GDP, was severely impacted by the pandemic. Closed borders, no international tourists, hotel activity suspended and mobility restrictions between islands severely impacted the economy, and the sector resume is strategic to the country. Digital transformation may present important opportunities to help relaunch this critical sector for the country and help cope with the pandemic effects with new business models and solutions that can generate income and create jobs in this new and challenging environment.

Mapping the Gaps...

Re!nventa Tourism was designed as a means for Business Promoters and Operators in the selected sector to identify real necessities and opportunities (gaps) for Tech Entrepreneurs to develop digital solutions with scale potential and value for the sector, and to enable Supporting Partners to provide skills building, visibility, technical and financial support to solutions development and scale.

Gaps mapping workshops with selected players in the tourism sector, from government institutions to tourism associations and operators were held to identify the pain points and develop problem statements that clearly address them, creating real opportunities for developers and innovators to focus in order to develop marketable solutions with high impact potential.

Entitles such as the Ministry of Tourism, Chamber of Tourism, Young Entrepreneurs Association, Tourist Guides Association, Travel Agencies and Incoming Association, Tourist Operators participated in the sessions and provided inputs to the development of problem statements, which was then organized in 3 thematic areas: (1) Accommodation and Restaurants, (2) Travel Agencies, Transports & Tourist Guides and (3) Diversified touristic offer, for which participants could develop their solutions.

Call For Solutions

A public call for solutions, opened nationally and to the diaspora was held between the 2nd and 17th November 2020. A web site (http://reinventa.digital.cv/) with all relevant information about the challenge was available to all interested, and an active campaign in the social media was maintained during this period to inform and attract candidates and participants.

An official launch event with the high sponsorship from the Government of Cabo Verde, the UN Joint Office and other institutions was held on the 3rd November, ensuring high visibility for the initiative. Local partners and associations were actively engaged to promote further the initiative and bring more expertise thought their networks.

A series of opens sessions, talk shows and interviews with specialists and market operators were held in order to inform and help candidates to improve their ideas and applications. An advertising campaign in radio and TV also was conducted to build the desired dynamic and engage the ecosystem with the initiative.

… Hacking the Gaps!

A total of 30 applications were selected to participate in the online hackathon event that was held from 20th to 22nd November. More than 120 entrepreneurs were engaged with 20 more mentors and speakers in a 72 hours developing marathon, in which they develop their prototypes and business model to respond to the problem statements of the challenge. During the hackathon week, an intensive agenda of seminars and upskilling sessions was maintained in order to better prepare the teams for the challenge.

The incentive package included a monetary prize of 8.000 USD for the winners of each thematic area, offered by the National Tourism Fund, and a set of services offered by sponsors and partners, including technical assistance and incubation by PROEMPRESA and NOSI and cloud services by IBM. A panel of national and international judges, including members and specialists from partners and sponsors, evaluated an ranked the projects that completed the hackathon challenge and a total of 9 projects awarded the above mentioned prizes (the first 3 places of each thematic areas).

A pitch lab offered by Djassi Africa was included in the hackathon in order to build participant’s capacity in pitching their products & services and provide early feedback on final presentation of their MVP’s to be performed in Demo Day end evaluated by the panel of judges (according to rules and regulations previously disclosed).

Key Findings and Challenges

Mobilizing the national tech ecosystem was essential to the initiative. The partnership with Cabo Verde Digital was key to accomplish this. They brought to the project a much valuable network of contacts and a well-established position in the system that was critical to engage participants and important partners like IBM and Djassi Africa. This strong core team created synergies and laid the foundation to attract very skillful and renowned mentors and speakers, both national and international, and to provide valuable tech services, all very important factors in attracting participants and motivating innovators.

Working with key institutions and operators in the tourism sector to develop problem statements and opportunities for the challenge was key to develop relevant subjects for participants to focus and increase solutions adherence to the market needs and improve scalability potential.

On the other hand, managing the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders, from public institutions to private sponsors, technical partners, specialists and speakers with very different needs and particularities, in different locations and speaking different languages was a real challenge! Managing the trade-off between following a detailed plan and the necessary flexibility to adjust to demanding needs was key to project success.

What’s Next?

The hackathon is a very intense experience! Everything has to happen within in a very short time period and the pressure is high for both participants and the people in the organization. But it is gratifying to see the results! So many people involved, so much effort made and so many great solutions developed! We must congratulate all participants for all this effort and results.

The next step will be to close the agreements between hackathon winners and the sponsors providing the prizes and start a 6 months solution development period, in which the teams will be supported an monitored to deliver successful products to the market and address the targeted problem statements.

Re!nventa Turismo was just the first edition! We will use all this knowledge and concept to bring up new editions of Re!nventa to other sectors and industries. Maybe Blue Economy? Maybe Fintech? Who knows..

We wish a rapid recover and much better 2021!