British startup, KOMPAS, is world finalist for the UNWTO's prestigious tourism competition

5 years ago

23rd January 2019: London-based travel AI startup KOMPAS, was one of the top 10 finalists from an initial 3,000 applicants from 132 countries in the first tourism startup competition to ever be hosted by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The UNWTO teamed up with Globalia, Spain’s largest tourism group, and the international tourism fair, Fitur to identify emerging startups disrupting the way people travel worldwide.


Pitching to world leaders in both the private and public sectors, KOMPAS were joined by map-based accommodation tool Stay22, a peer-to-peer travel club for over 50’s, The Freebird Club and tax refund startup Refundit, among others. Refundit founded by Ziv Tirosh and Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze), went on to win the grand prize of a pilot with Globalia.

Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili said “We’re highlighting the need for investment in the digital technologies that can help to create innovation and entrepreneurship in tourism. ... Innovation and digital advances give tourism opportunities to improve sustainable development objectives like inclusiveness, strong communities, and resource management.”





As well as Zurab Pololikashvili, the judging panel consisted of a section of Europe’s tourism elite; the CEO of Globalia Javier Hidalgo, President of Grupo Barrabés, Carlos Barrabés, Investment Director of Portugal Ventures, Miguel Barbosa, and VP and Chairman for Entrepreneurship at the IE Business School, Juan José Güemes.


CEO of KOMPAS, Tom Charman said “With huge travel technology scenes growing in the likes of Tel Aviv and Austin Texas, now is the time for travel startups to make use of new technologies and growing datasets to either disrupt or work with incumbent companies that until now have owned the majority of the travel market.”




The importance of sustainable disruption was a key theme throughout the event particularly whilst outside of the venue, taxi drivers were protesting the presence of on-demand ride-hailing services, making aware the consequences of not taking sustainability into account. 


Although KOMPAS wasn’t crowned the winner on this occasion, KOMPAS has already gone on to be identified as one of Europe’s most disruptive tech startups and has been selected to showcase the product to 6,000+ travel technology professionals as part of Travel Technology Europe’s Disrupt Launchpad taking place on the 20th February in London. 


For more information on KOMPAS, visit www.kompasapp.com.

ENDS

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About KOMPAS

KOMPAS is a dependable city exploration companion that uses smart algorithms to personalise content to each individual user based on their interests. We present relevant reviews and a hassle free way of getting around the city. You can customise your journey in a way that suits exactly what you want to do. Find unique, relevant and undiscovered locations in your own back yard. Street art, underground jazz bars and much more is just waiting to be found. We're able to scale in any city, in short, intense periods of time, by producing unique, relevant and unique content.