The Danish Startup Ecosystem Guide - Magasin - Side 33
Foto: Bamdej Communication el Keyvan Thomsen Bamdej
HIT supports the phases
of the ecosystem
Challenges: The pipeline of entrepreneurs
starts in the knowledge environments. Here,
HIT puts tourism on the agenda through
challenges, where students are challenged
to solve specific needs in the industry
- which can later become an actual,
knowledge-based startup.
Accelerator: Every six months, a new
cohort starts in the HIT accelerator, which
supports entrepreneurs‘ entry into the
tourism industry. Here they get access to
sparring, knowledge and networks.
Corporates: HIT facilitates contact
between startups and the established
tourism industry. Partly to strengthen
the startups‘ network in the established
industry, but also to mature the established
tourism industry to make use of these new
solutions from startups.
tomers, but also about sparring early on
so that entrepreneurs know what they
need to address if they are to succeed in
the market,” says Heidi K. Dahl Larsen.
In 2022, the number of tourist overnight stays broke a new record with an increase of 12.2%
compared to 2019, according to VisitDenmark, Denmark’s tourism organisation.
Foto: Stefan Thorndahl
challenges in knowledge institutions,
an accelerator for startups, and advice
and sparring with established companies that want to invite innovative
solutions into tourism.
The chain starts in knowledge institutions like universities, where HIT presents concrete challenges from tourism
to students, challenging them to solve
them. In this way, students get to work
with a concrete demand in the market,
and this has already proven to be a viable model.
“After the first challenges in the
autumn, we had three applicants to our
startup accelerator who had born their
business idea during our challenges. So
we can see that serving them a concrete
industry challenge is inspiring and provides a good starting point for a sustainable idea,” says Heidi K. Dahl Larsen.
The startups that are actually accepted into the accelerator are at very different stages of their growth journey. Here,
they get the chance to develop the idea
further and test it in the marketplace in
collaboration with the experts from the
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industry - who may eventually become
customers or partners.
“Tourism is an industry that is very
seasonal: there is simply nothing that
can go wrong when you are in the middle of high season and running at maximum capacity. That’s why it’s not just
about getting corporates to become cus-
Even if the companies
don’t see themselves
as a tourism startup, to
begin with, we can help
with the knowledge,
insights and networks
that can turn this into
a big new business
opportunity for them«
Heidi K. Dahl. Larsen
Head of Secretariat,
Hub for Innovation in Tourism
Tourism startup without tourism
TripAdvisor and Airbnb are two of the
shining beacons of traveltech that have
had a major and direct impact on the industry globally. But HIT is also very much
looking for startups that don’t necessarily see themselves as suppliers to tourism
from the start.
In fact, only 16 per cent of the 88 startups that have gone through the tourism
accelerator are from traditional tourism
sectors, while the rest are ICT companies,
for example.
“The rest come from other industries
but want to test whether their solutions
match a need in tourism. There are
many good examples and cases that
have got new business out of going into
tourism. That’s why we also spend a lot
of time screening and scouting for startups that are active in other industries
and that we think might match a demand in the tourism industry,” explains
Heidi K. Dahl Larsen.
These include Flow Loop, which had
targeted its shower solution, which recycles 80 per cent water and saves 70 per
cent energy. And startup The New Sort,
which offered waste sorting widely. Both
now have go-to-market strategies for the
tourism industry.
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