EarthCheck this week opened the nation’s first Tourism Entrepreneurs Accelerator Program for tourism start-ups at the newly established The Capital co-working space in Brisbane.
CEO Stewart Moore and General Manager Mark Olsen said the dedicated EarthCheck space would enable the organisation to share its global data, research and tourism development experience with tourism entrepreneurs.
“EarthCheck itself is a start-up, originally created through intellectual property developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism in the early 1980’s,” Mr Moore said.
Today EarthCheck has become the world’s leading scientific benchmarking, certification and advisory group for the travel and tourism industry serving clients in over 70 countries across 32 sectors in six languages.
“EarthCheck recognised a long time ago that as a company we need to continually review, refresh and reinvigorate our products and services. The only way we can hope to do this is learning to collaborate beyond normal company boundaries. Part of that learning is also a recognition that disruptive growth models need to be embraced,” Mr Moore said.
In addition to its commercial consulting, products and sustainability performance products, EarthCheck runs a not-for-profit research centre dedicated to providing solutions to some of the major global challenges facing the worlds travel and tourism sector. The EarthCheck Research Institute brings together leading scientists, postdoctoral fellows, staff and students working in and across university research centres around the world.
Mr Olsen said The Capital was a smart collaborative space for investors and entrepreneurs interested in finding more efficient and smarter ways of doing business.
“In a digital ecosystem companies such as EarthCheck can find ways to collaborate with entrepreneurial partners located anywhere from next door to across the globe,” Mr Olsen said.
The EarthCheck Accelerator will run strategy, sustainability and business development programs and one-on-one mentoring for emerging and evolving tourism enterprises from across Australia.
“One of the defining differences in the EarthCheck network is that we already have corporate clients across the world who are hungry for new ideas,” Mr Olsen said.
An initiative of the Brisbane City Council, The Capital, a collaborative space occupying three levels in the Queen Street Mall and occupied by Australia’s largest start-up space operator, Fishburners and co-working space Little Tokyo Two, is already home to 200 start-ups set to benefit from exposure to corporate and government customers.
In launching the $5 million innovation hub, Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said The Capital would continue Brisbane’s momentum as a centre for innovation in the Asia Pacific region.
EarthCheck’s advice, products and services are used globally in more than 70 countries by more than 1,400 tourism operators.
Tourism entrepreneurs should contact Mark Olsen on +61 418 773 806 or email mark.olsen@earthcheck.org.
Visit www.earthcheck.org to find out more about what we do.
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