Raíces Incubation Program

Program targeted at tourism ventures in indigenous territories of Costa Rica

Raíces is the first incubation program in Costa Rica focused on the generation and consolidation of sustainable tourism ventures in indigenous territories.

Our goal

To promote the local development of sustainable tourism in indigenous territories, providing the necessary support so that tourism business ideas or initiatives can become successful, viable and self-sufficient ventures, capable of contributing to the growth of the community, the region and the country. Enterprises that also contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, cultural revaluation and gender equality.

Program components

It is a 6-month hybrid program (face-to-face and virtual) with the aim of working with a group of selected enterprises, which will have a business idea or business initiative related to the tourism sector and must belong to one of the 7 indigenous territories. selected from the Buenos Aires region of Puntarenas and Pérez Zeledón.

The program has 3 stages:

Incubation

Construction of the business model and prototype development plan

Sep 19th – Dec 1st

Financing Management

Preparation of enterprises to receive and use seed funding

November

Prototyping

Implementation and validation of the prototype development plan

Dec 1st – Feb 28th

Who can participate?

To participate in this program, the following characteristics must be fulfilled:

Entrepreneurship stage

This program seeks to support ideas (seed stage) or incipient business initiatives (early stage). It is sought that these business initiatives are at an idea stage or that they have been recently created, so that they still need to be developed to have a product or service that can be marketed profitably.

Tourism sector

Solution or idea designed for the tourism sector, which encompasses lodging, transport, recreation, gastronomy and other activities related to tourism, understood as trips and stays made by people in places other than their usual environment for leisure, business or other reasons.

Belonging to any of the selected indigenous territories

The selected indigenous territories are: Boruca, Cabagra, China Kichá, Rey Curré, Salitre, Térraba and Ujarrás.

Impact and sustainability perspective

This program is aimed at indigenous people with an entrepreneurial spirit who have a sustainable business idea whose concept of balance and respect for nature generates a positive environmental impact, supporting the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, while allowing the closing of gaps for vulnerable population historically excluded, maximizes social impact and contributes directly to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Type of legal status

Ideas or business initiatives of individuals will be admitted, provided that they are not being developed by a legal entity. In case of being developed by a legal entity, it must prove that it has been operating the economic activity for a short time (less than 36 months after the legal identity was established) and be constituted as an Association, Integral Development Association, Specific Development Association, Cooperative, Limited Liability Company or Corporation.

Beneficiary of Law 8634

To be considered as a beneficiary of the program, it must be verified that one belongs to one of the following categories of Law 8634:

Entrepreneurs: person or group of people that have the motivation and capacity to detect opportunities for their business, organize resources for their use and execute actions, with the purpose of obtaining economic or social benefits from it. For Sistema Banca para el Desarrollo (SBD), this condition is understood as a phase prior to the creation of a MIPYME.
Microenterprises: productive units, characterized by the parameters of Law N° 8262.
PYMES: productive units, characterized by the parameters of Law N° 8262. For purposes of this program, only small businesses will be considered.
Agricultural production micro unit: agricultural production unit, whose annual gross income does not exceed the equivalent of seven hundred and forty-four base salaries, according to the concept of base salary established in Law N°. 7337.
Small agricultural production unit: agricultural production unit whose gross annual income is greater than seven hundred and forty-four base salaries, but does not exceed the equivalent of one thousand eight hundred and thirty base salaries, according to the concept of base salary established in Law No. 7337.
Associative business models: cooperation mechanisms through which relationships or articulations are established between any of the beneficiary subjects predefined in article 6 of Law N° 9274.