The vice-president of the Cluster participated in the opening ceremony of the second edition of the Xunta’s Tourism Startups Accelerator.

The second edition of the Xunta’s Tourism Startup Accelerator, Turislab, officially got underway on Friday 1 April with the presentation and welcome ceremony for the 15 projects selected to take part in the Pre-Academy phase of the project. And as in the first edition, the Galicia Tourism Cluster was there, accompanying the promoters of the initiative, to celebrate its launch, congratulate the entrepreneurs who have passed the first filter of the selection process and encourage them to move forward with their projects to contribute to the development of the Galician tourism sector.

Jesús Picallo, the Cluster’s vice-president, was in charge of representing the entity at the event presided over by the director of Tourism of Galicia, Nava Castro, and of saying a few words to all those present. “Innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental elements in the success equation. Innovation provides new approaches and solutions to the existing reality and entrepreneurship the impulse to face a new business. Both are the basis for the creation of new companies, jobs and the engine of economic growth. So the launch of this second edition of the Xunta de Galicia’s Tourism Startups Accelerator is very good news for the sector. From the Galicia Tourism Cluster we celebrate the promotion of talent because it is an investment in the future for the sector and for the community”, explained Jesús Picallo in his speech.

The vice-president of the Cluster also pointed out that support for entrepreneurs and driving initiatives “are among the main strategic objectives of tourism in Galicia, included in the Galicia Safe Destination Master Plan”, reiterated the importance of public-private collaboration and stressed that the Accelerator allows “adding new ideas and new projects that can be the seed and driving initiatives for tourism”. He congratulated the participants on their courage and wished them the courage to persevere and achieve their goals. “Part of the future of a sector with great potential lies in your creativity. You have a unique opportunity to make your projects a reality under the mentorship of the best experts”.

In this first phase of the Accelerator, the Pre-Academy, 15 projects have been selected from a total of 117 initiatives presented. They will now have a month of training and mentoring to design their business model, consider their financial viability and work on contact with the driving companies and the field of communication. The selection committee will then choose the 10 projects that will go on to the central part of the programme, the Academy, which will run for 7 months, and will thus be eligible for the 80,000 euros in prizes. 16 women and 12 men are the driving forces behind these first 15 Pre-Academy projects.

In this second edition of Turislab there are 7 different categories in which the applicants could compete and all of them are represented in this phase. Boldest, Wonder Experience, Viajator and Spot Now are competing in the Travel Techcategory; Sparelajarse, Turismo Inclusivo Ribeira Sacra and Meet Rural belong to the Social Tech category; the Way of St. James category has two candidates: A Leira 116 and Xacobus; and another two projects belong to Gastro Tech: O Mercado da Pedra and Salmoira. There are also two Infraestructure Track projects: Hotel Escuela and Trick Track, while the Sustainability and Coastal Tourism categories have one each: BGreen and Atlantic Surf Galicia, respectively.

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