By Geoff Percival,Stephen Aherne
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Travel and tourism giant TUI – through its TUI Care Foundation philanthropy arm – has launched an initiative to support boost sustainable tourism in Laos.
Tourism is a key driver of the Laos economy, contributing over 10% to national GDP before the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs.
As a Least Developed Country, Laos relies heavily on this sector for income and employment. However, the pandemic severely disrupted tourism, leading to widespread business closures and rising poverty in the country. MSMEs, which account for 99.8% of all enterprises in Laos, remain under-resourced and largely informal. They face limited access to finance, in particular green financing, and low capacity for sustainable practices makes it difficult for them to meet international standards. Young entrepreneurs, especially women, encounter additional barriers to growth and innovation.
In response, the TUI Care Foundation, in partnership with Plan International Laos and in alignment with the EU funded Lasting Laos project, has launched TUI Futureshapers Laos, a targeted initiative to support MSMEs and young entrepreneurs in building a greener, more resilient tourism economy. The project introduces a Small Matching Grants Programme – a green financing instrument that provides small grants to help businesses develop and implement sustainable products and services. The initiative focuses on four key tourism destinations in the country: Vientiane Capital, Vientiane Province, Luang Prabang, and Champasak.
Over the course of the project, 200 MSMEs and 100 young entrepreneurs – 50% of whom will be women – will receive technical support, including training in sustainable business practices, financial management, and product development. MSMEs are also engaged and supported to achieve the Lasting Laos sustainability certification, ensuring alignment with national green growth strategies and international standards.
A total of 80 businesses will be awarded grants through the programme. These grants will serve as seed funding to pilot and scale environmentally responsible innovations. The project is expected to support approximately 2,000 livelihoods, including employees of the participating businesses. To foster long-term investment and visibility, the project will also organise an investor familiarisation trip in its third year. This event will bring international investors and mentors to Laos to meet high-potential enterprises, explore funding opportunities, and build lasting partnerships.
A total of 80 businesses will be awarded grants through the programme. These grants will serve as seed funding to pilot and scale environmentally responsible innovations. The project is expected to support approximately 2,000 livelihoods, including employees of the participating businesses. To foster long-term investment and visibility, the project will also organise an investor familiarisation trip in its third year. This event will bring international investors and mentors to Laos to meet high-potential enterprises, explore funding opportunities, and build lasting partnerships.
The initiative is part of the global TUI Futureshapers programme which empowers people to turn social challenges into entrepreneurial opportunities in holiday destinations. It includes projects in Greece, Portugal, Sweden, Dominican Republic, Albania, North Africa, Colombia, Cape Verde, Tunisia, Egypt, Zanzibar and Namibia.
The TUI Care Foundation’s ‘Tourism for Development Month’ is a month of activities dedicated to projects set in Least Developed Countries. Through a series of project launches and educational activities, it focuses on how sustainable tourism can increase the capacity of destination communities and empower them to improve their livelihoods, conserve and regenerate nature, and create market-based solutions that benefit tourism destinations. The projects are supported through the TUI Care Foundation’s Tourism for Development Fund, which commits €10 million by 2030 to empower Least Developed Countries, a joint pledge of TUI Care Foundation and UN Tourism.
