WiTH Africa Hackathon

About the challenge

Tourism is a key economic driver in Africa, with international arrivals in 2024 surpassing pre-pandemic levels and South Africa’s sector alone projected to support nearly 1.9 million jobs in 2025 (source: UN Tourism). Yet data remains fragmented, scattered across portals, and often excludes community-based tourism, limiting comparability and decision-making despite regional initiatives to close the gap (source: UNDP, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, open.africa, Knoema, ResearchGate).

This hackathon challenges students to address these gaps by building innovative solutions that can be integrated into the WiTH Africa online tourism data platform.

Expected Results / Deliverables

Prototype feature for the WiTH Africa platform, including (1) consolidated database of aggregate data from at least 10 data sources and the corresponding metadata, (2) one dashboard containing eg. predictive analytics, GIS visualizations and/or other analysis, (3) one business model that explains the relevance and adequacy of the created feature to the WiTH Africa platfrom. 

Final submissions should include an integration roadmap and may be presented through code (GitHub/zip), slides, mockups, or prototypes.

Why Join?

• Work in interdisciplinary teams (management, engineering, tourism, design, etc.) of 3-4 students.
• Contribute directly to solving real challenges in African tourism data.
• Gain hands-on experience in data innovation, AI, data visualization, and design thinking.

Partners Involved