In picture, one of the happy customers of Ecohost

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Bamboo Lao from Luang Prabang, Lao PDR beat 111 competitors from across Southeast Asia to take top prize in the 2018 Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST) challenge. The elite travel startup competition receives support from the Australian Government and the Asian Development Bank and counts Asia’s most prominent travel-specialized venture capitalists among its advisors. MIST’s top prize comes with a $10,000 USD innovation grant.

Bamboo Lao is on a mission to eliminate single use plastics from hotels and resorts across Asia. They have produced more than 80,000 reusable bamboo straws as well as other bamboo serving ware, using special breeds of bamboo and a proprietary natural treatment process. Their straws – which are in use in Aman Group, Pullman, Rosewood Group, and Sofitel properties, as well as on EXO Travel tours – have already displaced the use of more than 5,000,000 single use plastic straws.

All startups finish presentation

“The MIST innovation grant is money we desperately need in order to scale up production from one to three villages. We have received international orders for as many as 100,000 straws, and we must invest in the capacity to meet that kind of demand,” said BambooLao founder Arounothay Khoungkhakoune.

Vietnamese startup Ecohost took MIST’s second prize and received a $5,000 USD grant. Ecohost enables quality experiences in the Vietnamese countryside, working village-by-village to develop tours and activities while improving the capacity of rural homestays to serve international guests.

The two-year-old MIST program supports high-growth-potential emerging market startups in travel and hospitality – especially startups making a positive impact on communities, cultures, and the environment. The program’s five 2018 finalists completed a weeklong bootcamp on business fundamentals, received five months of coaching, and showcased their business models at four events: the MIST semi-finalist pitch competition in Ho Chi Minh City, June’s Mekong Tourism Forum (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), a final investor pitch in Singapore, and the Mekong Travel Startup Forum at Singapore’s ITB-Asia travel trade fair.

Opening remarks by Jens Thraenharnt

“The Greater Mekong Subregion includes the fastest growing tourism destinations on earth, which creates enormous economic opportunity even as it places the region’s travel industry under unprecedented pressure to innovate. MIST’s uniqueness in the global travel industry is underscored by its winners Bamboo Lao and Ecohost. These entrepreneurs have risen to the challenge of innovating practical local solutions to real industry problems and needs,” said Jens Thraenhart, executive director of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office. The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office administers MIST with the endorsement of the Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam national tourism organizations.

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The Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST) – which features a startup accelerator and a separate market access programme – will support 10 innovative travel and hospitality companies this year.

Launched two years ago, the innovation programme aims to identify and support high-growth travel and hospitality businesses that have potential to contribute positively to local communities, economies, and the environment. It is jointly supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Australian government and six-government Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MCTO).

Five local entrepreneurs from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam earned spots in the MIST Startup Accelerator programme, which teaches business fundamentals to early-stage travel and hospitality startups.

The five startups are: BambooLao (Laos), which produces reusable bamboo straws; Ecohost (Vietnam), which aims to improve local homestay management and activities; Go Explore (Vietnam), which organises “workation” programmes aimed at international and domestic remote workers; Sidesbag (Cambodia), which enables airline passengers to purchase luggage allowance from fellow travellers; and VDEs (Vietnam), which connects event planners with event venues.

The Startup Accelerator finalists will reconvene in October, concurrent with ITB Asia in Singapore, to compete for innovation grants up to US$10,000.

MIST has also selected five companies to join its Market Access programme, which invites innovators from around the world to solve tourism and hospitality industry challenges in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The programme helps innovators clear market entry obstacles, form local partnerships and secure financing for proof-of-concept pilots.

The five companies chosen are: Adventoro, a bookable directory of bucket-list worthy activities including whitewater rafting, jungle treks and diving excursions; DidaTravel Technology, which offers backend technology for hotel booking, providing real-time inventory and rates; hereO, creator of the heroO GPS watch for kids, and offers plug-and-play IoT technology; Moneybay, which provides a digital cross-border currency exchange platform; and Monkey Theory, which offers branded sporting events.

“There is no doubt that technology is rapidly transforming travel. The trick is to harness and accelerate innovative business models that also positively transform lives, communities and the natural environment,” said Jens Thraenhart, executive director of MCTO.

“MIST has received more than 350 applications from all over the world, demonstrating the GMS’ dynamism as a destination and its attractiveness to innovators,” added Dominic Mellor, senior investment advisor for the ADB.

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Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST) will co-host a Travel Tech Pitch night in Ho Chi Minh City with New York-based travel tech incubator Voyager HQ, on March 1 to gather those on the cutting edge of travel, innovation for an inside look at the next generation of travel products and services.

While a selection of highly-qualified founders will present what’s coming up in the near future of travel to a panel of industry leaders, investors and corporate partners, experienced industry leaders will oversee the judging of the startups’ pitches. All judges, gold and premier sponsors, and startup founders will receive an analysis of their performance post-event.

Know more about the initiative, here.

MIST is the Mekong’s tourism and travel tech accelerator organized by the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office and the Mekong Business Initiative. It is sponsored by the Asian Development Bank and the Government of Australia to propel and transform innovative tourism ideas into sustainable businesses.

MIST has two acceleration tracks; the MIST Startup Accelerator focuses on early-stage tourism companies and startups already based in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar or Vietnam, and the MIST Market Access Accelerator welcomes mature businesses based anywhere in the world that wish to expand into the Mekong region.

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