Egyptian startup Tobadaa, which connects travelers to tour guides and locals using their own cars to book tours, was one of the 25 winners of  UNWTO’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Global Startup Competition.

Startups from around the world have been recognized for their contributions to sustainable and responsible tourism in the competition, which attracted some 10,000 initial proposals. From these, the jury chose 25 winners from 18 countries, highlighting the array of tourism talent in every region. Shortlisted finalists were judged according to criteria including the potential of the startups to contribute to a specific goal, their ability to be scaled-up and the maturity of both the product and the team behind it.

The jury was made up of leaders from across the tourism sector.

The Americas led the way in submitting winning proposals, with nine of the competition winners coming from the region. Europe crowned eight winners, Asia and the Pacific six, and Africa and the Middle East one winner each.

The winning startups will now be given expert support and backing to develop further, including guided mentorship programs from Amadeus, Google, IE University and FarCo, and tailored mentorship sessions from Mastercard and ClarkeModet.

The winners will also be invited to take part in a pitching event, to be hosted by Wakalua within the framework of Spain’s International Tourism Fair (FITUR). Another pitching event will take place at the Tourism Tech Adventures Forum, due to be held in Qatar in collaboration with Qatar Airways and Qatar National Tourism Council, another partner for the project.

Furthermore, the winners will benefit from access to all UNWTO’s collaborators for the competition, opening the door for potential game-changing pilots and networking opportunities with Amazon Web Services, Globant, BBVA, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and IDB Lab, Telefonica, Plug and Play, the Advanced Leadership Foundation, Impact Hub, mentorDay and the destination partners for the Competition.

For the full list of winners and the SDG each startup will help advance, click this link.