In a competition with prizes worth 22,000€ ($24,000), the Gay European Tourism Association has teamed up with the Lisbon MBA and the Portuguese Tourism Board to find new ideas and technologies for measuring the behavior of holiday makers when they visit countries and cities.
The competition is seeking to create new tools that allow measurement of tourist behavior, such as where they go, what they do and how much they spend. The competition is also looking for innovative mechanisms for collecting and analyzing data, such as crowd sourcing and data mining of social networks.
The winning entry will receive 10,000€ ($11,000) cash or an 18,000€ ($20,000) scholarship for the Lisbon MBA. Two runners-up will receive 2,000€ ($2,200) cash. All three will be invited to present their ideas at a conference in Lisbon in September.
“LGBT tourists are a hugely important part of the $1.5 trillion tourist economy, spending over $200 billion annually” said Carlos Kytka, GETA’s executive director. “If we are going to enhance their experience and improve the facilities and services offered to them we need to have good data so that companies and destinations can make evidence-based improvements”.
The competition is part of GETA’s “Promoting Innovation in LGBT Tourism” program which has already seen initiatives such as the launch of Europe’s first LGBT language school holidays and partnering with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office to provide official safety guidance to LGBT travellers.
Anyone wanting to enter the competition can find details at www.thelisbonmba.com/news/tourism-innovation-competition
Closing date for entry is Aug. 31.
