EXCLUSIVE | Sustainable Tourism Impact Fund: How Patient Capital Unlocks Investments Conventional Financing Overlooks
Every USD 1 from Agoda's Eco Deals program contributes to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Singapore’s conservation efforts. A portion of that funding is channeled to the Sustainable Tourism Impact Fund (STIF) and disbursed by the UnTours Foundation as enterprise loans to eligible tourism and hospitality businesses in Southeast Asia.
In under two years, STIF has backed five businesses that served 13,867 travelers, supported 221 jobs, and helped plant more than 220,000 corals.
The early figures suggest that a modest, well-designed financing model can support visible activity in a short time.
Based on on-the-record interviews with every partner in the model, this reporting by AST asks whether the five-business pilot can become a credible financing pathway for tourism's underserved micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
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