Tourism Developer 2026

Objective

To recognise companies that contribute to Estonia’s tourism economy through attractive tourism services and products and contribute to the faster development and wider recognition of Estonia as a tourist destination.

Who can apply?

Companies that are directly involved in offering tourism services and products to the foreign market, whose impact extends beyond the company itself and who are an example for the entire sector are invited to apply. The applicant company must have a revenue of at least EUR 50,000 in the previous financial year and at least 2 employees.

Evaluation criteria and process

The following economic indicators are evaluated (makes up a total of 30% of the evaluation):

1. Compound sales growth 2023-2025 (10%)
2. Compound growth of value added per employee 2023-2025 (10%)
3. Added value per employee compared to the sector in 2024 (10%)

The company must show a significant achievement in the following areas over the past three years (comprising 70% of the final result):

4. A distinctive product, service and/or business model that also stands out in foreign markets (30%)
5. The impact of the company’s activities on the image of Estonia, the living and tourism environment and the tourism sector in general (e.g. you have found a solution for a missing service in the sector) (30%)
6. The company’s outstanding activities and achievements in digitalisation and process automation (10%)

Definitions

Value added per employee = (operating profit + expenditure + labour costs) / number of FTEs

Compounded growth = (2025 result / 2023 result) ^ (1/2) – 1

Digitalisation
By digitalisation, we mean the development of the organisation’s business processes through the application of information technology and innovative automation, which allows for data-based decision-making and more efficient operating and thereby increasing flexibility to market changes. Time freed up from manual work and routine activities increases the quality of work and creates new valuable opportunities, thus being more competitive. Examples: a) Automated workflows and processes
b) Implementation and/or development of business software
c) Cloud technologies
d) Data processing and analytics, big data
e) Internet of Things (IoT) devices, robotics including industrial robots, autonomous industrial automation and robotic process automation (RPA), sensor technologies
f) Artificial intelligence or machine learning and machine vision
g) Augmented reality decision support, simulated environments, digital twins
h) Cyber technologies
i) Demand-driven supply chain management
j) Manufacturing/3D printing of three-dimensional components