Freeedom > Sustainable Tourism for Development

Freeedom is an online platform supported by a robust ecosystem enabling "Sustainable Explorers" to easily book "Sustainable Tourism Experiences". Driven by a global Sustainable Rewards Program leveraging Partnerships, it is designed to empower aspiring entrepreneurs, especially youth, women and indigenous people, previously unemployed, to start and grow sustainable tourism businesses.

I have been developing the concept for a global digital infrastructure (Freeedom’s platform) to leverage the tourism sector to become a major contributor of the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Freeedom will be more than just an online booking platform. It will be an ecosystem bringing stakeholders (private and public) together to cooperate to shift the industry so it can reach its full potential.

Freeedom will enable "Sustainable Explorers" to easily search and book "Sustainable Tourism Experiences" in any country at any price point. Driven by a global Sustainable Loyalty and Rewards Program designed to drive sustainable development, the bookings of experiences from the high end segments of the sector (luxury sustainable lodges) will subsidise the development of aspiring entrepreneurs, especially youth, women and indigenous people in emerging economies, previously unemployed, to start and grow a sustainable tourism business. Supported by a robust ecosystem with an online Cooperative Development Hub and locals Development Centres, it is designed to be an enduring framework to positively influence and reward sustainable behaviours and practices simultaneously on both the supply and demand sides.

This collective approach could harness the growth of the tourism sector to its full potential in a manner that will minimise its impact on climate change and maximise its socio-economic potential by creating millions of new jobs, lifting millions out of poverty, reducing inequality in all its forms, respecting human rights and protecting the biodiversity of our environment.

Thravi is a 27 years old Cambodian, currently unemployed. She wants to build a sustainable business showing the places she cares about and things she loves to the rest of the world, BUT:

> Limited support is available to help her set up credible sustainable operations.

> No easy way exists to get exposure and reach enough customers to start or grow a business.

> Current online platforms or booking and payment systems are controlled by few big intermediaries and are not affordable and often inadequate for the sustainable tourism sector which 80% is serviced by entrepreneurs and SMEs like Thravi.

As one of the largest and fastest-growing socio-economic sectors, tourism can create decent jobs and business opportunities, benefitting particularly youth, women, indigenous and marginalised communities. Although it is recognised as a tool for development and included as a target in 3 SDGs, it is unfortunately not prioritised and underrepresented in aid flows.

The sector is hugely fragmented, characterised by an important number of independent and scattered stakeholders facing multiple barriers to grow a competitive sustainable business. To leverage tourism to its full potential, a pioneering form of global collaboration with a high-performance partnership approach like Freeedom is desperately needed.

My aim with Freeedom, is to collectively drive Sustainable Development through Tourism by:

• providing an unified voice to raise public awareness, educate and promote the benefit of sustainable tourism

• developing a simple yet credible universal sustainable tourism rating system supported by a continuous improvement framework

• proactively influencing and rewarding sustainable demand, behaviour and practices

• mobilising companies, SMEs and entrepreneurs to adopt best sustainable practices on a continuous basis

• support an entrepreneurship ecosystem to empower unemployed people to start a sustainable tourism business

• measuring and monitoring progress while openly sharing data to foster innovation and work towards achieving the SDGs

Track the number of new entrepreneurs and new employees in SMEs operating on Freeedom supported by our network of Partners - Job creation: 4,000 in 5 years

Track the number of women entrepreneurs and women led business on Freeedom as per our 50% policies and actively ensure that we support women to start a business to reach that target - Gender equality: 50% women entrepreneurs

Track the number of new sustainable accreditation achieved by entrepreneurs and SMEs - Improve sustainable practices of entrepreneurs and SMEs: Get 50% entrepreneurs and SMEs on Freeedom accredited with a Sustainable Tourism standard

Freeedom is more than just an online double sided platform, it is an enduring framework to positively influence and reward sustainable behaviours; consumption and production which complement and mutually reinforce each other when done right.

Innovative mechanisms to positively influence sustainable consumption is still at infant stage and needs to be further developed and  promoted.

Combined with our innovative Sustainable Loyalty and Rewards Program, real time commercial and impact data will be measured and progress monitored, in the short and long term, to adjust rapidly and continuously test our “gamification” techniques to positively influence behaviour and amplify our collective impact.

The sustainable tourism sector is poorly regulated and confusing. There are over 390 voluntary sustainable tourism standards with varying degrees of rigor/credibility making it confusing for consumers and providers alike. Even with an increasing demand for sustainable products and services, consumers are increasingly critical of claims and certifications (green washing).

In collaboration with relevant stakeholders, Freeedom will transpose existing standards on an agreed simple consumer focused sustainability rating system designed to improve consumers’ understanding and positively influencing behaviour. It will foster a sustainable continuous improvement approach for entrepreneurs and SMEs with an easy implementation blueprint to improve sustainability performance.

Freeedom has been designed based on an integrated partnership approach bringing relevant stakeholders together to cooperate to change a whole industry towards a more sustainable one where everyone's benefits. Freeedom will identify synergies by coordinating every stakeholders effort in different areas to amplify our collective impact. Leveraging the power of this powerful collective approach, Freeedom will access consumers and providers through it’s Partners’ networks and existing marketing channels enabling us to reach the critical mass needed to support “Aspiring Entrepreneurs” better and faster. Our Partners from the public, private and non-for-profit sectors will be working towards our common sustainable goal.

With the support of friends and family, I have been bootstrapping to research Freeedom’s solution and learn about all the sectors it intersects (tourism, sustainable development, tech, loyalty and behavioural economics).

With the support of great mentors, I also took time to educate myself on how to become a good startup CEO and learning about capital raising to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively launch this venture post financing.

I have developed a small network of “Contributors” helping and coaching me on various aspects, but “technical assistance” and “Seed funding” is required to employ a dedicated team to develop an operational MVP and test our ambitious vision and get “investment ready” to scale.

Now with a presentation deck developed, I am ready to start approaching potential business Partners and Angels Investors and exploring the different government grant options available for a “For Profit For Purpose” business like Freeedom.

Freeedom is based on the willingness of Partners and host communities to cooperate towards a shared vision with win-win-win benefits for all stakeholders instead of competing to gain market share or grow margins. I interviewed as many relevant stakeholders as possible to learn about their challenges to develop a customer centric Value Proposition and mitigate low adoption risk.

Major players in the online tourism sectors like Booking.com dominate the market and often dictate terms not favorable for entrepreneurs and SMEs which are key to achieving the SDGs. These big players have the capacity to prevent us reaching our objective.

Freeedom is an ambitious concept that can only be achieved if stakeholders work together toward the common goal of transforming the tourism industry towards a more sustainable one. It is extremely hard to launch as it requires resources to coordinate this global integrated model. It truly combines profit and purpose where many non-revenue generating activities need to be completed before truly be able to test our overall concept. This is not just a huge opportunity, it is also a massive responsibility with the potential to make an enormous impact and I believe Solve’s community can help achieve it.

Especially as Freeedom is a member of the UN 10 YFP Sustainable Tourism Program, we have nearly 40 Partners willing to collaborate, including: CITES, several UN agencies, The Long Run, Rainforest Alliance, Plan International, Swiss Contact, Carnival, World Nomads, Village Monde, World Indigenous Tourism Alliance, MyClimate, Inspired Adventures, Future Earth.

Many competitors can become collaborators!

Booking, Expedia, Tripadvisor, Airbnb, Visit, Travganic