Montreal, QC, January 18, 2022— MT Lab and the Ministry of Tourism (MTO) are pleased to announce that 19 innovative tourism businesses will share $830,000 in grants to grow their businesses, their ideas and actively participate in the recovery of the tourism industry in Quebec, thanks to the Financial Assistance Program for Tourism Innovation.
The tourism innovation fund set up by the MT Lab with funding from MTO aims to democratize innovation for the entire tourism industry in Quebec and to accelerate the implementation of structuring projects to enhance the quality of tourism businesses' offerings and counter the labour shortage. The objective of the Bursary component is to support innovative businesses in Quebec with strong potential for economic or tourism growth, that are struggling to quickly find traditional financing, or that have difficulty fitting into other government programs.
Aimed at innovative start-ups with high growth potential in tourism that have shown signs of success and would benefit from additional support to improve their product or service and grow their business.
UNIQ Hotel
Hotel Uniq fills the lack of accommodation during festivals by offering ephemeral accommodation that is a happy mix between camping and classic hospitality. It is a turnkey service that allows you to discover exclusive natural places through an eco-responsible experience in the form of a pop-up village of 15 units, in double or triple occupancy, with toilets, showers, kitchen, common rest area and pop-up activities organized every day depending on the location and local cultural events.
MySmartJourney
MySmartJourney is a tool for creating digital routes for tourist and cultural sites. Travel professionals have access to a library of pre-programmed features to quickly create and set up multimedia information in locations using a QR code, NFC chips, and URLs. The objective is to become the reference for the rapid deployment of multimedia information in physical places, both destinations and tourist and cultural establishments.
WeChalet
WeChalet is a 100% Quebec-based online booking platform for nature accommodations. It helps owners centralize the management of their properties' offerings across multiple locations. WeChalet wants to become the reference for cottages and nature accommodations in Quebec. The company plants a tree for each reservation made through its platform.
This category supports young innovative companies with high growth potential in tourism in order to pay the salary of an internal resource to accelerate its growth.
Alpha Premium
Alpha Premium helps hospitality and ecotourism businesses increase their online revenue using dynamic pricing, digital traffic generation, and data strategy. The company currently manages the revenues of 10 hotels in California and offers training to 45 members of the Association des Stations de ski du Québec and Aventure Écotourisme Québec in revenue management and support strategies.
Heralys Talent & Immigration
Heralys develops tools to improve the integration of talent from immigrant backgrounds. It wants to reduce the labour shortage in the tourism sector by attracting immigrants and become the reference for their placement and integration in the country.
HookMotion
HookMotion is a software used primarily for casinos, which allows for the automatic detection and tracking of small objects in real-time from video. This technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automate real-time monitoring of casino gaming tables, without face detection. This reduces the workload of casino employees so that they can focus on customer service and support.
Locapaq
Locapaq rents high-end outdoor equipment aimed at the neophyte tourist, with the option of training and turnkey support. This solution allows the accessibility and democratization of the outdoors and, thanks to its complete service, helps people connect with nature, especially visible minorities.
Nature Shuttle
Navette Nature (NaNa) offers a public transportation service between downtowns and Quebec's natural parks. With its offer, NaNa has the potential to become a leader in sustainable mobility.
OTIS Nature
OTIS Nature offers a structured network of glamping-style universal accessibility tourist accommodation rentals to allow people with limitations and/or aging generations to enjoy the outdoors and camping. OTIS Nature is the first structured network of tourist accommodation with universal access.
Snow slope
Pente à neige is a ski resort in Montreal that has been a great success. Pente à neige would like to set up shop in a large park on the island of Montreal and become the only place to ski less than 10 minutes from downtown. Its innovative winter activities project could be an important trigger for tourism by becoming THE city's winter leisure destination.
Radish
Radish is a platform to pool the technical needs of companies and individuals in the restaurant industry by hiring, offering the delivery service, training professional delivery people and offering digital equipment to restaurant players. As a co-operative, Radish has the advantage of offering restaurant owners a much more affordable service than the home delivery giants.
Stay22
Stay22 offers a service to events that locates available accommodation nearby. In the form of an intuitive map, travelers can see the prices and types of accommodation closest to the event they are participating in.
Sansoucy Sailing
Voile Sansoucy wants to go from a sailing club to a nautical outdoor center to offer more activities to customers such as kayaking, windsurfing, paddle boarding, SUP Yoga, and more. The company also plans to start making sails by hand. Voile Sansoucy wants to promote the Laurentians and improve the tourism offer, especially for day-trippers.
This scholarship is intended for young innovative companies with high growth potential in tourism that are following an incubation program of a start-up support organization supported by the Ministère de l'Économie et de l'Innovation du Québec, in order to promote the development of innovative entrepreneurship in tourism.
4Elements
4Elements is an interactive platform for gamifying spaces and creating unifying experiences rooted in real places. The platform also wants to improve the customer experience to strengthen attractiveness, increase and diversify revenue sources and optimize free spaces.
iCollective
iCollective is a collaborative web application that allows managers to ensure the cohesion and well-being of their remote team by providing a real-time visualization of their status and an offer to connect colleagues. This service helps with the need for HR retention in the tourism sector.
Lifeline
Lifeline offers portable smartphone and tablet charger rentals that can be borrowed and returned to one of many similar stations on the Internet.
a course (on the principle of Bixi). Their service meets the need for recharging electronic devices of customers and business tourists.
Ramble
Ramble is a platform for discoverability of unique experiences connecting local residents and tourists, who want to live experiences created by local individuals and businesses. This technology addresses the need for benevolent tourism by offering authentic experiences with locals who meet niche demands. (e.g., personalized walks, painting or cooking workshops, aperitifs, etc.)
Retournzy
Retournzy offers a circular network of reusable containers for event venues and some establishments. Nearby depots allow containers to be returned for washing and reuse in order to reduce single-use containers for establishments and events that offer "meals on the go" to passing tourists.
Solutions Hilo
Hilo Solutions offers a smart mirror solution containing tourist information about the destination, services near and inside the place. Hilo Solutions are installed in hotels, airports, and convention halls. An innovation that reduces the need for front desk staff and increases revenue with paid partnerships.
To learn more about the companies and their solutions, visit their websites and follow us on our social media channels.
"Stimulating innovation is one of the keys to ensuring the competitiveness of our destination. I am very pleased that this new program will encourage innovation in tourism, allowing our destination to further distinguish itself." These grants will make a concrete contribution to the realization of innovative projects of tourism start-ups and to help them in their growth. Our tourism entrepreneurs have many creative ideas with great potential and our government, in collaboration with the MT Lab, will continue to support them." »
Caroline Proulx, Minister of Tourism and Minister Responsible for the Lanaudière and Bas-Saint-Laurent Regions
"This new financial assistance program is a first and we are proud to contribute, in our own way, to the revival of tourism, but above all, to promote the work of Quebec startups working in this sector. We have the opportunity to help these innovators break into the market and develop concrete solutions that have the potential to accelerate the transformation of the tourism industry." We would like to warmly thank the Quebec Minister of Tourism, Caroline Proulx, for this exceptional contribution to the implementation of this promising assistance program. »
Mr. Pierre Bellerose, President of the MT Lab.
"This fund is a big step forward in supporting tourism innovation and at the same time positions Quebec as one of the world leaders in this field. Over the years, the MT Lab has created an ecosystem of committed entrepreneurs who are able to contribute to the emergence of innovative solutions for the tourism industry. Thanksto MTO's support, we are convinced that these scholarships will give them the breath they needto grow and participate in the tourism recovery." »
Mr. Martin Lessard, Executive Director of the MT Lab.
ABOUT THE MT LAB
The first startup incubator dedicated to tourism, culture and entertainment in North America, the MT Lab was created in 2017 by UQAM and Tourisme Montréal. At the same time a meeting place, a startup accelerator and a platform for exchanges, the MT Lab supports companies with innovative solutions for the major players in the industry.
The twelve major partners that actively participate in the MT Lab's mission are: Aéroports de Montréal, Air Canada, Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec, Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec, Loto-Québec, Musée de la civilisation, Palais des congrès de Montréal, Olympic Park, Sépaq, Tourisme Montréal, Transat and Très Trois-Rivières.
The MT Lab receives financial support from the City of Montreal to make Montreal a hub for innovation in the tourism, culture and entertainment industry. This support will allow the MT Lab to consolidate its status as a leader in the tourism industry in innovation in Montreal.
The MT Lab receives financial support from Startup Québec (Ministry of Economy and Innovation) to operate its 2021-22 Export Program.
The MT Lab receives support from UQAM for its premises located in the Cœur des Sciences, Place des Arts, in downtown Montreal.
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MEDIA CONTACT
My-Le Nguyen | Fernandez Public Relations | [email protected]
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