Khmer Tourism For The Future - Impact Hub Phnom Penh

ទេសចរណ៍ខ្មែរសម័យថ្មី | Khmer Tourism for the Future

Re-imagining sustainable, domestic tourism

Program Summary

Impact Hub Phnom Penh, co-financed by Khmer Enterprise, a unit under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, as the main sponsor and the Ministry of Tourism, is excited to launch the Khmer Tourism for the Future incubator.

Khmer Tourism for the Future is an incubation program designed to build resilience and innovation in the tourism sector that has been hit badly by COVID-19. The program aims to provide startups and businesses intensive supports to rebuild and re-imagine tourism in the next 12 months and pave a new future for sustainable tourism.

The program is designed for entrepreneurs with an environmentally friendly prototype or business that has the potential to impact the domestic tourism sector across Cambodia. The ultimate goal of the incubator is to validate and grow alternative models for doing businesses, focusing on the domestic market.

Support offered on the program:

Funding: After the pre-incubation phase, there will be a competitive pitching event, where 4-6 teams will be selected to join the ‘Incubation Phase’, and will receive $5,000 in grant funding from Khmer Enterprise
Workshops: Business workshops delivered by tourism and business experts
Coaching: Personal mentor to support entrepreneurs’ personal development
Mentoring: Sector and industry experts for tailored expert support
Network & Connections: Access to Impact Hub’s national and international network, with strategic connections for partnership development
Field work: Advice on how to conduct regular field trips and analyze the results of testing prototype and business models directly with tourists
Demo Days: An opportunity for participants to showcase their business in front of investors, strategic partners and the public, to build nation and region-wide exposure and awareness
Field trip: A chance to get to know their cohort and understand the market better by attending a field trip outside of Phnom Penh

Timeline:

Applications Closed

For more information, please get in touch with our team at [email protected]

Pre-incubation Phase:

8-10 business will be selected to join an Innovation Bootcamp on Saturday 26th September – Sunday 27th September on business fundamentals. This is followed by mentoring and pitch training to prepare for Demo Day.

Semi-Final Pitch:

on 12th November: Judges will select 4-6 businesses to join the Incubation Phase and receive $5000 each to build their venture.

Incubation Phase:

from November 2020 to May 2021: Receive workshops, mentoring, coaching, and network & connections.

Showcase and Demo Day

in May 2021: Teams will showcase their business and their progress during an event.

6 Selected Startups/Team That Won Semi-Final Pitch

Check out the Press Release Here

YEA Catalyst

More than ever, many businesses and corporations need to spend their holiday and staff retreat wisely. Not only for the entertainment but also for bringing the best out of them. YEA Catalyst enriches the team retreat experiences by providing both fun and meaningful team-building activities that allow them to reflect and solve any prioritized challenges they faced in the workplace.

Solo Landscape

Solo Landscape is a tour operator which focused on adventuring and exploring new things at mountain, sea and Eco-tourism areas to lead passionate explorer and nature lovers to see potential things with the educational adventure that comes with the worse and nicest experience. This will teach you something great in life.

Unseentra

Unseentra.com is a web platform, which travel operators, local guide, tourist attraction sites can sell their unique, adventurous, local-oriented travel activities and experiences packages to traveller around the world. The platform allows operators to efficiently manage their operations, booking, most importantly gaining sale numbers by accessing to the new market.

Cambodian Rural Discovery Tours

CRDT Tours is a non-profit tour operation that focuses on providing a different travel experience in terms of education and agriculture and community development. We organize trips to remote destinations in Cambodia, visit the local community and stay in the rural homestay and visit different projects related to our theme of learning tour.

WeFarm (Yfarm)

WeFarm (Yfarm) has been supporting youth and young farmers on sustainable farming since 2018. We have organized training courses to learn on sustainable agriculture topic and community-based tourism.

Uot App

Uot App (អួត អែប) is the trip lover community App. The vision of this platform is to become the Leading digital trip community in Cambodia. The mission is to enhance and enable digital travelers/ digital traveling with the content of trip information.

The Other 4 Teams That Joined The Programme Were:

Haystome

Haystome is a connecting platform that connects local artisan and travelers to various authentic art masterclasses. It’s an online booking website haystome.com. Currently, we are located in Siem Reap, Ratanakiri, and Phnom Penh.

Usher (by RunAway)

Usher is a platform to connect international and local tourists to the local guides (freelance guide and eco-tourism sites owner). The tourist can book or contact them directly through digital before they go.

NTFP-EP Cambodia

NTFP-EP supports communities to set up and operate the Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) in the upper Mekong River. It includes the support to set up the institutional structure, build the capacity on leadership, management, facilitation and bookkeeping, coordinate with PDoT to conduct training on food service and hospitality, support CBET product development and market linkage, monitoring, coaching and mentoring.

Yi Family Homestay

We not only provide accommodation but also offer the experience in Permaculture in our eco-lodge premises. We are focusing on Permaculture combines organic gardening, ecological design, natural swimming pool, and collaborative community projects to create cultural alternatives and human habitats that regenerate the Earth.

Watch The Liveshow of the Semi-Final Pitch Here:

Click here now to watch the video

TARGET/ WHO IS IT FOR?

Stage

- Prototype Stage (see here for more information)
- Or Startup Stage (making first sales to customers)
- We are looking for participants who want to learn how to turn their prototype or business into a responsible and sustainable business model.

Criteria:

Limited experience in starting/growing a business required
An entrepreneurial attitude and passion for transforming the tourism sector
Minimum of 2 co-founders with the skills and technical ability to execute the business idea
Participants must:
- - - Be based in Cambodia (those based in coastal regions strongly encouraged to apply)
    - Be able to travel to Phnom Penh for the Bootcamp, Demo Day and Showcase (expenses covered for applicants working in/with coastal regions)
    - Have an internet connection to join workshops and mentoring session online
    - Be able to travel out of Phnom Penh (to province) for fieldwork to conduct regular field trips and testing prototype and business model
Can work on their startup for a minimum of 12 hours per week for the duration of the program (8 months)
Agree to complete surveys during the program for monitoring and evaluation purpose

Sector

- We are in the incubation phase to support startups/ organizations that can provide innovative solutions:
  - To develop alternative tourism experiences, such as agro-tourism, adventure tourism, art-tourism, educational-tourism..etc
  - To support and impact local communities by increasing their livelihoods
  - To promote secondary destinations and sustainable tourism practices
  - To provide a unique customer experience for the local market
  - To help support the hospitality sector in their operations/recruitment/growth/pivot their offer
  - To make the touristic experience accessible for all (people with disabilities, elders…etc)

What Is Prototype?

Prototype:

A basic model or example of your product or service created for the purpose of learning about your customers preferences. They are built to test an assumption* or idea quickly and cheaply so that you can make appropriate refinements or possible changes in direction early on.

A prototype can be anything that takes a physical form – a sketch on paper, a video of how your idea works, a model of your product, a role play of your service, a landing page of your website etc. Prototyping gets ideas out of your head and into the world. They help you learn because they allow your customers to interact with your idea, which can help eliminate guesswork and subjectivity from conversations alone.

However, they are not a fully functional product/service, because they are not your final design. Instead, they are a way to find out what doesn’t work early on, to allow you to spend your time and money on solutions that do work. *An assumption is something that you think to be the case, even without proof.