The United World Tourism Organization launched the Women in Tech Startup Competition

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 13 April 2023

A new competition called the Women in Tech Startup Competition has been introduced by the United World Tourism Organization in Riyadh. The largest SME Conference in Saudi Arabia, Biban, initiated this event in order to assist and promote the region's female innovators. The Women in Tech Startup Competition's major objective is to promote female entrepreneurs in the workforce and give them plenty of opportunity to grow their companies both locally and globally.

Natalia Bayona, the Director of Innovation, Education, and Investment at UNWTO, laid the foundation of this competition. In line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, UNWTO launched this competition with the goal of supporting female entrepreneurs and giving them the opportunity to succeed in the tourism technology and industry. The strategy places a strong emphasis on social development, digital transformation, and significantly digitalizing the travel and tourist sector with female leaders.
According to a UNESCO research entitled Cracking the Code: Girls and Women's Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), there are now significantly more women working in STEM professions.

61% of women are university graduates from STEM, and 57% of them are from the Arab world. Women who work in tech companies comprise 34%. According to the report, women are more intrested to launch IT startups in Europe than companies.
Compared to the list for 2021, there has been a dramatic increase in the proportion of women working in the tech sector. Pioneers and leaders in the STEM professions, such as Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, UAE Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, Saudi Arabia is a great place.

In the MENA region, between 20 to 40 percent of women are employed, with the Gulf countries having the highest rates and Egypt and Jordan having the lowest, according to the PcW's MENA Women in Work Survey.
A fantastic chance for female entrepreneurs to gain recognisation and act as role models for the aspirant younger generation of girls is the UNWTO's Women in Tech Startup Competition.
Social effect, experience, communication, travel and tourism, future technology, and events will all be included in the competition. The UNWTO will provide workshops for the competition's winners as well as mentoring. The top four finalists will have access to a network of more than 447 investors, 1247 companies, and representatives of foreign governments. Universities will also provide business and scholarship opportunities.

The competitors must be citizens of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Egypt, Iraq, Oman, Libya, Lebanon, Bahrain, Syria, and Qatar and possess a tested pilot, a fully functional team, and a business strategy in order to be eligible for the competition.