IPBN Member John Donnelly, one of the top 5 Tourism Solutions Now! winners

A 28-hour marathon to help preparing the future of the Tourism industry, of such importance to the Portuguese economy, organised by NEST Centro de Inovação do Turismo and powered by Startup Lisboa!

For six days, from 22nd to 29th July, international teams of innovators and entrepreneurs took part in a remote innovation program with access to many activities, tools and methodologies to validate, execute and implement their idea and bring forward solutions needed to mitigate the crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic on Portugal´s tourism.

Congratulations from the IPBN to John, founder of The Little Book of Lisbon, and his team, an Englishman living in Lisbon and a Portuguese from the Azores, who combined their creative abilities, coding, UX design and sales & marketing skills and in six days, came up with a travel solution for tourists which will make their stay in Portugal as seamless as possible.

Their solution was one of five winners who were chosen for incubation in the Start Up Lisboa. Watch out for www.tripmaka.com

Here is a personal message from John:
"Massive thank you to the Irish Portugal Business Network for sharing the details of NEST Centro de Inovação do Turismo competition. I was thrilled to be invited to participate by Tourism Solutions Now! and even more thrilled to be part of a team to be selected by Startup Lisboa to go through for incubation. In six days, we came up with TRIPMAKA, a travel solution for tourists, which will make their stay in Portugal as seamless as possible. I encourage others to apply for these competitions, the paperwork was minimal, the processing very quick and the mentoring was exceptional."