Mercy Corps, the lead implementer of the USAID Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaa), signed two grant agreements with Turquoise Mountain and Jordan Heritage, with funding from USAID, to establish two tourism innovation incubators.
According to a statement by Iqlaa on Tuesday, the two organizations were granted a total of JD 489,600 under the two agreements to establish two innovation incubators for the tourism sector in Salt and Irbid, with the aim of serving 155 home-based businesses (HBBs) and micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the sector.
The incubators will play a crucial role in enabling MSEs to innovate within the tourism sector by enhancing their managerial and technical capacities, improving their management practices, developing access to diversified markets, and increasing their resilience.
“Since it started in May 2022, the USAID-funded Iqlaa program has focused on supporting HBBs and MSEs to grow and become more resilient. Towards that end, the program has explored new ways of d
oing business and improving access to finance, markets and services”, said Ayat Al Tawil, Economic Specialist at USAID.
She added, “The support granted by Iqlaa to the two tourism incubators is part and parcel of the program’s approach to further develop HBBs and MSEs in Jordan by strengthening the existing support-ecosystem outside the capital Amman. We strongly believe that such an approach will help achieve a wider scale and better sustainability of the impact that Iqlaa aims to achieve.”
Reflecting on the significance of these grants, Laith al Qassem, Chief of Party at Iqlaa, stated, “Considering the strategic importance of the tourism sector in Jordan, and how badly it has been affected for the past few years, Iqlaa has been giving special attention to this vital sector, along with the other sectors it serves including the agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors. The grant agreements we are celebrating today are a result of a vigorous competitive application process by Iqlaa that aimed at exten
ding support to MSEs in the tourism sector through experienced and competent market actors that can build on this support and scale up its impact”.
He added, “On behalf of Iqlaa, I would like to congratulate Turquoise Mountain and Jordan Heritage on the received grants and wish them all the very best in implementing the planned incubators and actively contributing to the development of the tourism sector in Jordan”.
Source: Jordan News Agency