The global strategic partnership between Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship (FiiRE) and Big Blue Road (India) Pvt. Ltd (BBRi) promises to strengthen the tourism tech startup ecosystem in Goa
Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship (FiiRE) and Big Blue Road (India) Pvt. Ltd. recently announced a global strategic partnership, combining FiiRE’s in-depth experience with startups and BBRi’s industry-leading consulting services in the field of tourism, tourism analytics and tourism technology.
The partnership will fortify TourismTech startup ecosystem, helping startups to gain the right access to the tourism ecosystem, ensure proof-of-concept testing with the right industry partners and bring in expert guidance on business-model strengthening for these startups.
The FiiRe-BBRi partnership brings together rich and relevant experience in technology development and deployment, which when applied to the tourism tech space, will help support and guide startups who have solutions in the mobility, clean tech, sustainability, customer engagement and loyalty and other related spaces.
“The FiiRE-BBRi partnership is a powerful combination. BBRi’s understanding of complex tourism landscape, tourism technology, data and analytics, its deep industry expertise, and agile, collaborative approach compliments the work being done by FiiRE. We believe this will help to generate industry leading TourismTech startups” said Shawn Mendes, Director, BBRi. “This partnership will allow us to drive far more business impact for the TourismTech startups and the tourism industry at large” 
“Partnering with BBRi will allow us to provide the very best business, program and portfolio strategies on which we will build the next generation of transformative TourismTech digital products and platforms,” said Thejus Joseph, COO, FiiRE. “Mendes has been officially brought onboard as Advisor for TourismTech at FiiRE. Through our understanding of the startup ecosystem and his industry insight we will explore the full potential of digital solutions.
We want to place our startups on the best path to help them deliver solutions that will propel local, national and even global tourism forward” added Joseph.
With this partnership in place, the team at FiiRE gains greater momentum towards their vision of making Goa a premier destination for Tourism Tech startups by 2030.
Post pandemic, with the focus on accelerating startups which have developed solutions that can be applied to the tourism industry, FiiRE supported 14 such startups. The FiiRE team has been putting into place local partnerships, building visibility for these startups, helping them with market access and introducing them to the right ecosystem enablers. 
Many of these startups have chosen to move to Goa, and test their tech platforms and products in the local ecosystem.
One such is Campper. They partner with campsites to digitise their business, standardise the operations, and help them with demand generation, reservation and revenue management. Campper also partners with landowners and helps them in building standardised Campper branded campsites. With presence across other states in India,
Campper is in talks with landowners in Goa, with the objective of helping build entrepreneurship as well as employment in the state. With Campper branded campsites emerging in scenic locations across Goa, it will be possible for tourists to experience a whole new side of Goa.
Goa being an all-year tourist destination, many of the local tourists are multiple-visitors who have experiences of the sun, sea, sand side of Goa. This will open up a whole new experiential vacation scenario for individuals, couples and families who wish to be closer to Nature and enjoy the comfort and convenience of a well-organised camp site.
Similarly Offbeat, an experiential travel company that promotes sustainable and immersive travel across India, provides customers a unique perspective about travel to a destination with an immersive travel experience into local life and culture. Their belief that Indian villages are a huge repository of experiences for a millennial traveler, has led them to curate unique travel experiences across villages in India.
