• The Tourism Recovery Programme extends to support entrepreneurial tourism teams in Tunisia, with 100 businesses from Tunisia joining the 315 from Egypt, Mexico, South Africa and Kenya already participating 

• Focus on small and medium-sized enterprises that have a positive, social or environmental impact and demonstrate innovative business models

• Tunisian tourism entrepreneurs can apply until 27^th October to receive financial support, training and mentoring 

After a successful launch in Egypt, South Africa, Kenya and Mexico enpact and TUI Care Foundation are now extending the Tourism Recovery Programme to Tunisia. 100 entrepreneurial teams from Tunisia’s tourism industry will be empowered to adapt to the pandemic’s challenges, improve their ability to innovate, maintain jobs, and strengthen international collaboration with the European market. Through the programme, participating businesses will have the opportunity to gain access to dedicated mentoring by tourism experts, training, and financial support of up to 9,000 Euro per business. The programme is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Tunisia is the 4th most visited country in Africa, with 14.9% of the population employed in tourism. In the wake of the pandemic, arrivals have been reduced by 65% in 2020 – severely impacting hundreds of thousands of livelihoods in the country. The six-month Tourism Recovery Programme aims to provide support for innovative travel and tourism micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through dedicated mentoring, financial backing and business development support. Following the successful onboarding of 315 businesses from Egypt, Mexico, South Africa and Kenya in August 2021, the programme is now extending its support to up to 100 businesses in Tunisia, which will be added to the programme in November 2021 for a period of 6 months.

To apply for the programme, businesses need to be legally registered, locally owned and independently operated, and to have been revenue-generating prior to the pandemic. Businesses also need to display a technologically, socially or environmentally innovative business model.

Applications are open until the 27th of October for small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises in Tunisia. Eligible businesses can apply here: https://www.tuicarefoundation.com/en/take-action/tourism-recovery-programme-apply-tunisia

The business management topics covered by the online training component, such as Resilient Leadership, Digital Transformation and Sustainability, aim at giving these groups of entrepreneurs the tools to run a sustainable, flourishing business.

The mentoring component complements this through a more tailored approach, whereby experts from the TUI Group and other companies across the global tourism ecosystem consult the participants on how to optimise their business models.

The Empowering Entrepreneurship Initiative was developed by the non-profit organisation enpact e.V. The initiative was launched in 2020 with two programmes designed to deliver economic relief from the COVID-19 crisis. The Tourism Recovery Programme is the third standalone programme of the initiative, designed to deliver support to businesses in the tourism sector. The COVID-19 Relief Programme is supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is implemented together with enpact and TUI Care Foundation.