Redistributing Tourism Wealth through First-of-its-Kind Digital Infrastructure

Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries - and one of its most inequitable. Worth over $10 trillion annually, it promises opportunity yet systematically extracts wealth from the very communities that make travel meaningful. In developing regions, up to 95% of tourism revenue leaves local economies, captured by foreign-owned hotels operators, international conglomerates, and expatriate staff.

This inequity is structural: a legacy of colonial extraction where outsiders still control infrastructure and profit while locals provide culture and labor without ownership. Today, the pattern persists digitally: global platforms dominate visibility and distribution while community-based tourism organizations (CBTOs) remain invisible.

When wealth flows outward, communities lose both income and agency. Rising land values price locals out of participation, and “sustainable tourism” often conceals continued dependence on foreign intermediaries. The post-COVID rebound has deepened this divide - foreign investors recovered quickly, while community-based enterprises still struggle to rebuild.

CBTOs were designed to change this, yet they remain digitally and financially excluded. Without access to global booking systems or payment tools, they remain dependent on intermediaries and unable to compete globally. Their exclusion is not a matter of capability but of design: the digital infrastructure of tourism was built for corporations, not communities.

The result is a tourism economy that mirrors its colonial past: structurally extractive, digitally exclusive, and economically unjust. To address this, we must redesign how tourism’s wealth moves, turning a $10 trillion market built on extraction into an engine for redistribution - so that those who share their homes, communities, and cultures also share in their economic value.

Equera is rebuilding tourism from the ground up - digitizing community-based tourism (CBT) to restore equity, visibility, and ownership to local communities. We’ve developed a SaaS platform that connects community-based tourism organizations (CBTOs) to the global marketplace, enabling them to participate in and profit from the industry on their own terms.

The platform brings together everything CBTOs need to compete globally. Using GenAI-powered onboarding, communities can describe their experiences and instantly generate professional listings ready for publication across online channels. Our reservation technology then consolidates all bookings and automates guest communications via WhatsApp, allowing rural and low-bandwidth users to manage operations easily. Together, these tools make local enterprises discoverable, bookable, and financially independent for the first time.

Our methodology blends technology, training, and transformation. During onboarding, Equera provides hands-on coaching and product support so that CBTOs can professionalize their services, strengthen revenue streams, and retain ownership of their customer data. Continued training and capacity building is also provided to CBTOs via WhatsApp, to support team members and organizations and ensure they are equipped to deliver amazing, high quality experiences. We also collaborate with tourism boards to map and promote authentic, community-run experiences, ensuring that travelers seeking purpose-driven travel can find and book them effortlessly.

This approach goes beyond inclusion - it restructures the infrastructure of tourism itself. By placing community enterprises directly in global markets, Equera redirects value flows that once benefited foreign intermediaries back to the people who sustain culture, biodiversity, and local livelihoods.

In doing so, Equera transforms tourism from an extractive system into one of redistribution and self-determination - a scalable model for how technology can democratize wealth, shift power, and create a more just and equitable global economy.

1. Pilot launched in 3 countries: Equera is live across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kyrgyzstan, testing adoption and early impact across diverse tourism ecosystems.

2. 27 community-based tourism organizations onboarded: Representing 60+ active users, these local enterprises are now managing their own products and sales channels.

3. 130+ tourism experiences uploaded: Communities have listed authentic, locally owned tours, stays, and activities for the first time on a global distribution platform.

4. 50+ CBTOs co-designed the product: Continuous feedback from organizations in 12 countries shaped the platform’s features, ensuring cultural and operational relevance.

5. 6x growth in offerings at Red Rocks Rwanda: After onboarding through Equera, the organization expanded from 3 to 20 bookable products, illustrating a new sense of ownership and market understanding.

7. Early systemic shift observed: Communities are moving from dependency on intermediaries to direct participation in the global market - reclaiming control, visibility, and revenue.

Next steps: Equera is creating distribution partnerships with DMCs and local tour operators, and will begin tracking downstream impact metrics including bookings, revenue growth, and community reinvestment.