The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is joining forces with Paris&Co, Paris’ economic development and innovation agency, to develop the tourism sectors in Singapore and Paris through exchange programmes between start-ups and information sharing.

The first-of-its-kind agreement between Singapore and France seeks to promote the development of tourism start-ups and accelerate the development of the tourism sectors in both cities.

As part of its digital transformation efforts, Singapore has been supporting its companies across various sectors to build their technology and innovation capabilities. STB launched the Singapore Tourism Accelerator last year to refine and test-bed innovative solutions that could benefit Singapore’s tourism sector.

The Accelerator has set up a highly selective six-month programme that provides the most promising young technology companies with mentorship and opportunities to pilot their solutions.

Building on these previous experiences, the Singapore Tourism Accelerator is at the heart of the collaboration between the STB and Paris&Co.

Paris&Co promotes the dissemination of innovation through the incubation of more than 500 French and foreign start-ups per year through 15 innovation platforms. One of them, called Welcome City Lab, is dedicated to urban tourism and includes the world’s first incubator specifically dedicated to this sector.

As such, STB and Paris&Co sought to explore the possibilities of partnership between the Singapore Tourism Accelerator and the Welcome City Lab. Under this partnership, Singapore Tourism Accelerator alumnus Bakuun.com has been accepted as a member of the Welcome City Lab innovation platform, allowing the UK-based start-up to gain direct access to the travel tech ecosystem in Paris and scale internationally.

Poh Chi Chuan, acting chief technology officer, STB, said: “Covid-19 has changed the way the tourism business works globally. Tourism organisations need to work even closer together than before to come up with innovative solutions to address the challenges brought about by the pandemic. The partnership with Paris&Co will allow us to build connections between our respective tourism ecosystems and facilitate the flow of ideas and co-innovation.”