Booking.com Announces the Award Recipients of its 2019 Accelerator Program for Startups in Sustainable Tourism

OkraSolar from Australia and IMPULSE Travel from Colombia are both awarded this year's highest grants of €400k from Booking.com's €2 million fund

AMSTERDAM,May 10,2019 -- Today leading digital travel platform Booking.com announced the sustainable tourism startups receiving scaling grants as part of its 2019 Booking Booster accelerator program. Now in its third year,the three-week accelerator program consists of a series of lectures,hands-on workshops and coaching sessions led entirely by Booking.com employees and experts. The program culminates in a final pitch to receive a scaling grant of up to €500k from Booking.com's €2 million fund in order to help support the next stage of the startups' projected growth.

The 10 teams of finalists pitched their scaling plans to a live audience and a panel of expert judges in Amsterdam,with Okra Solar and IMPULSE Travel being awarded this year's highest grants of €400,000 for their proposed plans. With Okra's innovative solar grid technology,they plan to transform the energy market and provide affordable energy access for the more than one billion people currently living off-grid. IMPULSE Travel is a regenerative tourism platform for in-destination experiences,offering more than 200 tours and activities in seven locations in Colombia.

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About Booking.com:

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam,Booking.com B.V. has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the world. Part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG),Booking.com now employs more than 17,000 employees in over 200 offices in 70 countries worldwide.

With a mission to empower people to experience the world,Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. At Booking.com,we connect travelers with the world's largest selection of incredible places to stay,including everything from apartments,vacation homes,and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts,tree houses and even igloos. The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in 43 languages,offer over 28 million total reported listings,including more than 5.8 million listings of homes,apartments and other unique places to stay,across 148,000 destinations in 229 countries and territories worldwide.

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