2010 Innovation Award Finalist: WHL Consulting
Organization: WHL Consulting
Nominated by: Alex Bashian (Organization Category)
Project Description
Tourism Development Bank is a really cool project and is super innovative. It has far reaching implications for the long-term financial sustainability of small hotels. These guys have been working very hard at this model for the past year and I applaud them. Here is a little more about the project:
What problem are they solving?
Inability of small and medium sized accommodation providers to purchase services they really need like clean energy technologies and/or market access/e-commerce services. Typically it is hard for small businesses, primarily in the hospitality sector to collateralize their assets (i.e. their rooms stock) and/or gain access to finance from traditional lenders (especially in the developing world). High energy costs and a lack of market access due to insufficient e-commerce/online competitiveness are critical constraints to their long-term financial sustainability.
How are they solving the problem?
They have developed a trade facilitation platform that lets accommodation providers pay for market access and clean energy services with room nights (instead of cash). They have done this by a) leveraging existing partnerships in e-commerce and clean tech; b) piloting energy and market access audits with a few dozen of our partners to identify needs (this is part of a much larger partner network of thousands of accommodation providers); and c) piloting our proprietary barter-type access to finance tool (trading rooms for products and services) called the Tourism Development Bank.
How far along is the project?
They have built a beta of the platform and have begun trialing it in South Africa, Mexico and Brazil, where I believe they have completed something like 25 transactions for Market Access services. They are in late stage negotiations for pilot project in Energy Services with a world leader in renewable energy in the developing world: E+Co.
Related Links
>> Tourism Development Bank
>> Project: Exposure
ESTC 2010: Financing Sustainability Initiatives
Zachary Rozga, North America & Caribbean Regional Director of the WHL Group, will be presenting on the panel “Effective strategies for financing and supporting sustainability initiatives in tourism” at this year’s Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference (ESTC), being held in Portland, Oregon, USA from September 8-10. The ESTC brings together innovative minds from across the industry to discuss practical ideas and solutions that inspire positive changes. Learn more & register online at: www.ecotourismconference.org.
This is great news. Congratulations to everyone involved.
It is really an honor to have been selected as a Finalist for the TIES Innovation Award. We believe we are on to something very exciting for SME accommodation providers in the developing world and we are happy to recognized for this effort. At this moment we are also entered into an important competition run by Ashoka Changemakers and sponsored by the G-20. They are looking for new models to support SME Finance and we believe the is an excellent structure for SME accommodation providers. Please visit and show your support.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Belo Horizonte, Wallace Faria. Wallace Faria said: RT @Belo_Horizonte: Projeto do Grupo WHL, sendo aplicado também em Ouro Preto, é finalista do 2010 Innovation Award Finalist. http://bit.ly/bT8HEO [...]
Congratulations! A really innovative project.
Great news guys… awesome to see some of the great ideas and innovations come to fruition and get some recognition
It is always great to see fresh ideas for old problems. Well done to the entire team involved and I hope to see this project flourish!
A well deserving finalist and great and worthwhile initiative. Good luck!
Great to see this here! Definitely one of the more genuinely innovative entries in the list. This really stands out as something very interesting.
Would love to see this being developed in SE Asia – so much potential for such a well thought out project.
Fantastic news. Congratulations! The Tourism Development Bank is an inspired idea.
This is fantastic news for such an innovative team. Congratulations to all the pioneers involved!
This is definitely intriguing, I would really like to see the impact it will have in the future!
This is a really unique group with a strong set of triple bottom line core business values. Recognition is well deserved – congrats, and best of luck
It is really an honor to be recognized by TIES as a finalist in this year’s innovation competition. As a part of the WHL Group we are always pushing the envelope on the use of technology to see how we can help provide equality to the “small end of town.” Which we feel is inherently more sustainable than the global industrial tourism complex. We would be ecstatic to win this prize.
While being nominated for this prize we also entered into an competition sponsored by the G-20. For everyone who has commented here we would be appreciative if you could leave a similar comment for us on our
This is one of those ideas that makes people so, ‘Oh duh!’ So simple, so obvious, so beneficial… and so inexplicably long in the making. Although I see other great inspiration on the list of finalists, none carries the full weight of novelty and innovation that I believe the award calls for. This is a game changer, a program that brings real opportunity to the marginalized, that places value on what entrepreneurs have on hand, not just the color of their money.
This is an excllent and ground breaking concept. There is great opportunity for some countries in west africa to get on board.
bravo.
There’s also an entry for the Tourism Development Bank in the G20 SME Finance Challenge which talks a bit more about the potential impact and general sustainability of this project. It presents such an exciting opportunity to small hotels. I really hope it continues to capture people’s attention and act as a fundamental solution to the growth obstacles so often faced by small hotels.
I look forward to meeting you, Zachary!
I have been in contact with WHL folks for several years and I impressed by the aspirations of this group. The Local Travel Movement is sheer genius! I want to learn more about this new financing program. Count on my full support!
Hi Ron,
We are very excited by this innovation in working with small tourism providers (in this case accommodation providers). We have struggled for years to find a way to have the beneficiaries (SME accommodation providers) contribute financially to building a sustainable business for themselves. Traditional financial institutions lack the sector expertise and ability to manage (perceived) risk…. so they will not laon for such work; and on the other side of the ledger you have SMEs which are cash strapped and who also don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to payback on investments in renewable energy, building new online channels to market etc.
In this model WHL has inserted itself in the value chain and assumed the financial risk (we need to sell the rooms pledged in order to recoup the investment we make), a risk we manage because we stay working with the SME. We are acting a bit like a microfinancing institution does with loans made to individuals at the base of the pyramid.
By the way, congratulations on your much deserved win in the individual category.
Cheers…….. Len
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