Tourism for Development Month brings fresh opportunities for artisans and storytellers through TUI Care Foundation projects

(NEWS) BERLIN, Germany, 2025-Sep-05 — /Travel PR News/ — The TUI Care Foundation has launched three new projects under its Tourism for Development Month, aimed at empowering creative communities in Least Developed Countries through sustainable tourism. In Cambodia, the TUI Colourful Cultures Battambang initiative is supporting the city’s artistic revival by organising urban arts festivals, scholarships, and training for student artists in partnership with Phare Ponleu Selpak.

Meanwhile, TUI Colourful Cultures Siem Reap is providing 200 artisans with vocational training, business skills, social protection, and market access through collaboration with the Satcha Handicraft Incubation Center, ensuring craftspeople benefit directly from the city’s thriving tourism industry. In Africa, the TUI Colourful Cultures Zambia & Rwanda programme is training 120 young creatives in photography, videography, and digital storytelling, connecting them with tourism organisations and offering fellowships to develop Destination Ambassadors.

Together, these projects are designed to create new income opportunities, strengthen cultural heritage, and expand tourism’s role in building sustainable livelihoods. They form part of the TUI Care Foundation’s wider global programme, which already operates in destinations including Mexico, Zanzibar, Morocco, and Croatia, with a commitment to invest €10 million in Least Developed Countries by 2030.

In July 2025, the TUI Care Foundation expanded its TUI Futureshapers programme with new initiatives in London, Portugal, and North Africa, designed to empower women and entrepreneurs in the tourism sector. In partnership with Women in Travel CIC, TUI Futureshapers London is addressing gender imbalance in tour guiding by training women from diverse backgrounds in storytelling, business, and marketing, alongside personalised mentoring to develop authentic cultural tours and micro-businesses. Meanwhile, the programme returned to Portugal for a second round with IRIS, supporting up to 60 entrepreneurs through training, mentoring, and incubation funding, while in North Africa, over 180 participants from Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco are being guided through ideation, training, and accelerator programmes in collaboration with enpact Stiftung.