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Integrated Mobile Platform for Activity Commoditisation in the Travel market (IMPACT)

Objective

• Market issue:

EU tourism and travel sector (worth €300Bn and employing 9.7M people) faces new challenges to growth (incl. digitisation and diversification) that prevent SME growth:
1) Excessive fragmentation: high diversification (>30 verticals) and hyperlocal nature of the market prevent scalability and innovation (PCWI, 2014).
2) Digital divide: 90% travellers research holidays online (FairFX, 2012), but only 12% of providers have digital reservation systems, skewing demand (PwC, 2014).
3) Price inflation: SME providers are forced to rely on high and overlapping referrals for customer acquisition, causing price inflation (Rezdi, 2015).
The challenges are particularly acute for the guided tour segment, worth €7bn p.a.

• Proposed solution:
Touriocity has proven the concept of an Integrated Mobile Platform for Activity Commoditisation in the Travel market (IMPACT) to improve digital accesss for the long-tail of guided tour providers. IMPACT fits objectives of the Business Model Innovation work programme by supporting growth and innovation of 1.8M tour operators (81% have turnover <€1M p.a. 33% <€250k p.a) helping them to gain a growing share of the fast-growing bespoke guided tour segment (40% share) and creating a level-playing field with more established competitors.

• Why funding is needed:
Touriocity has tested IMPACT technology with 6k students in London, and has secured pilot trials with a further 250k registered users in 20 locations – in partnership with Gatwick Airport. Support from SME Instrument Phase 1 will be critical to prove technical feasibility and commercial viability of IMPACT in EU28, adapting the prototype to fit local market needs. Successful commercialisation of IMPACT in EU28 will help resolve market biases generated by unequal access to digital tools, helping SMEs to tap into the €7Bn guided tour sector, and disrupting the last segment of the travel market to be commoditised.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015

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Coordinator

TOURIOCITY LIMITED
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
6TH FLOOR 2 MORE RIVERSIDE
SE1 2RR SUSSEX
United Kingdom

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
London Inner London — East Lewisham and Southwark
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
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