Nominees 2020 – Culture & Tourism

Digital solutions can be a great driver for the UN SDGs.  Each year, the WSA national Experts in over 180 countries scout the local start-up and entrepreneurial ecosystem to select a maximum of 8 best practice examples for the 8 WSA categories.

The focus lies on digital finesse with content that solves local problems, enhances knowledge, and drives the UN SDGs.

This unique and diverse selection process provides a brilliant diameter of how digital innovation can be used for social impact, development and narrowing the global divides – and showcases global trends and focus points.

The WSA Culture & Tourism category, aiming for a connected world through culture, received 36 nominations in 2020. This category empowers and enhances human lives, promotes global peace and interculturality.

2020 culture & tourism nominations focus on 4 fields:

Tools to ease traveling
Digitalizing culture
Digitalizing tourism
Redefining tourism.

Tourism is a powerful driver of culture. Enabling travelers to find attractions easily, to be informed and enlightened, to enjoy safe travel and have access to up-to-date travel information is a prior necessity for regions for which tourism is the main source of income.

In this context, the WSA nominees provide tools that diversify and answer specific needs travelers most likely run into.

Furthermore, more and more travel solutions are providing diversity empowering services, promoting diversity and equality in the fields of culture and tourism. Travaxy and Wheel the world make traveling accessible to everyone. These impact solutions support the elderly and disabled on their journeys, showcasing the best options according to their needs.

The nominees of the Culture & Tourism category consist of 17 start-ups and 5 NGOs that are foremost focusing on redefining culture in times of global pandemic. All of them are digital platforms that offer a diversified cultural content. From tango classes and remote drama research, to galleries of old internet trends, and a notable Irish design and communication archive and community platform, these solutions enhance culture by reshaping it to the needs of the actual society.

Many projects have stepped outside of the box with creative digital platforms for cultural content democratizing art expositions and classical music and also presenting archeology hastily.

These projects preserve but also showcase the roots of their native heritage, in line with the challenge of presenting valuable cultural assets using state-of-the-art technology. In a globalized world, where mass media encourage the massification and unification of cultures, 2020s Culture & Tourism nominations encourage the diversity of cultures and sub-cultures and the multilingual nature of societies.

In this regard, two African projects have a great impact on local communities and beyond:

Wode Maya in Ghana, shows to the world the African vision of history but above all, its reality with an out-standing and self-inspired style. Gambia, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa, Rwanda, Mozambique, Togo, Ethiopia are just few countries visited by the Wode Maya Show and his personal way of documenting. He is the speaker of their local culture and products with more than 646 000 subscribers in his Youtube channel. “Until the history of Africa is told by Africans, the story of greatness will always glorify the imperialists!”

Promoting sustainable tourism that creates jobs and redesigns cultural activities in Botswana, DiverseU converts credits earned by the customers for every activity or trip, into sustainability causes in environmental conservation, education, sports development, and women empowerment. They are the only nominated project within the category using wearable technology. “Our products, resources, and energies are focused on unlocking the full human power and potential of both elites and leisure athletes in mass participation events”.

In some countries, where climate crises and geographical positioning is a matter of survival, tourism is not anymore just a question of leisure, but more importantly a question of awareness, consciousness and sensitivity. While in Papua New Guinea technology is being used for conserving the endemic Bird of Paradise Species, in the Maldives Goloca is offering an answer to the need of connectivity by implementing a local boat booking app to connect rural areas.

Massive culture moves massive tourism. It is the biggest driver of mobility and the only one to bring together contrasting communities with the same cultural belongings to the unity and coexistence.

In that regard, Qatar is eager to receive the worldwide FIFA football fans in 2022 and ready to lead them through its culture through the nominated app: discover Qatar.