The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further the technical development and future planning of the region’s culture and tourism sectors.
The agreement will see Hub71 and DCT Abu Dhabi identify and collaborate with startups on high-impact events and provide mentorship to founders and entrepreneurs to work on potential solutions that will advance the tourism and culture sectors, in line with DCT Abu Dhabi’s strategic vision of digital transformation to enhance people’s experiences and harness the power of technology, creativity, and innovation to drive the sector.
DCT Abu Dhabi will fund the development of proof of concepts (POCs) for successful startups that have been recognized for future work, to help overcome challenges that will improve tourism and culture experiences.
Saeed Al Fazari Executive Director Support Services Sector DCT Abu Dhabi
“Encouraging innovation is a key mandate for DCT Abu Dhabi, as we explore every available avenue in our pursuit of excellence across multiple sectors. This partnership with Hub71 will enable us to widen the net of potential startups we could collaborate with, maximizing our capacity to find the right solution that will work for our emirate as we promote the destination both locally and internationally.”
The partnership will include Hub71 providing DCT Abu Dhabi with access to a broad pipeline of startups, regionally and globally, that can provide a wide range of innovations to upscale the sectors’ services, in addition to Hub71’s quarterly cohort of startups.
Mr. Badr Al Olama, CEO of Hub71, said, “Innovation in such sectors is particularly interesting to us as they are on the rise globally with new robotics, AI, VR or AR and IoT that could streamline, enhance and unify customer experiences. We are all for building communities that can serve the wider Abu Dhabi agenda, and our partnership with DCT Abu Dhabi will allow us to unlock various sub-sectors of the industry.”
DCT Abu Dhabi will also take part in Hub71’s flagship challenge, The Outliers, a celebrated program that invites the best and brightest startups from around the world to solve real problems set by Hub71’s corporate and government partners. The winning startup will be granted endorsement for the POCs by DCT Abu Dhabi.
