The
UnTours Foundation
has launched its Reset Tourism Fund with $10 million to invest in "high-impact tourism businesses."
The foundation, alongside its partners Expedia Group, TUI Care Foundation, Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), Flywire and B Tourism, says it has already committed more than $540,000 to startups with a phase one goal of $1 million.
According to a statement, the UnTours Foundation has set up the fund to "identify those entrepreneurs whose businesses best represent a better future of tourism."
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Shannon Stowell, CEO of ATTA, says: “We all believe that the future of tourism must be more sustainable, equitable and community-focused, but there has long been a gap for the small businesses leading the way in that effort – flexible and affordable capital to help them grow. The Reset Tourism Fund will help bridge that gap and is a key development to drive our industry into a better, more high-impact future."
A number of businesses including
Purple Elephant Ventures
, GoPark Safaris in Kenya and Playa Viva, a boutique hotel in Mexico
have already received investment via the fund
.
The Reset Tourism Fund invests between $10,000 and $100,000 in loans, revenue-based financing and equity.
Jonathan Coleman, co-CEO of UnTours Foundation, says: “UnTours Foundation has a 30-year history in providing flexible financing to world-changing entrepreneurs at the front lines of fighting poverty, injustice and the climate crisis. Reset Tourism Fund is an exciting extension of this effort, focusing specifically on tourism, the industry that we know best, as owners of our own sustainable and Certified B Corporation travel company.”