dSAFARI - Zambia - Decentralized Tourism by local communities and artists who know the places you want to visit!

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Kyle Curry

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

kcurry9@gmail.com

Additional applicants

Lee Garaka - Young Emerging Artists Initiative - Zambia

BICOS - Blockchain Innovations Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited - Sydney Gondwe - Zambia

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

12

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

This project will be facilitated by Cardano Beam, an application on Cardano that connects NFTs to GPS locations across the globe. The main source of dependency will be on listing of tickets for tours on their website and facilitating the sales of the tickets that allow for users to access the tours.

The project will also use NMKR for the minting of NFTs by artists, so the system will be dependent on NMKR, but nothing special will be needed from the NMKR team to complete the project.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

No

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

The project will not be fully open source as it will be using Cardano Beam and that project is not yet fully open source, but aims to be in the future.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

NFTs

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The impact of this project will be large for local communities, artists and creators as they gain access to new sources of income and increase the reach of their work.

Tourism in Zambia is hard to access to locals creators as most of the market is controlled by international organizations and the wealthy. Entering these markets is also a challenge as there are not accessible platforms for creators to showcase their local knowledge of places and events that are occurring.

Locally created tourism guides that showcase off the beaten path places will be created as used as tickets for all tourists to use in their journeys across Zambia. These guides may be regional, very local, or national, allowing for more specific places and artists to be highlighted and new NFTs to be collected. These tourism guides will be PDF files that read like an ebook, giving more information on the places and the NFTs that are to be collected. The collectible NFTs can related directly to the locations or can be pieces of art that are created by a local artist in the area.

By using the dSAFARI platform on Cardano Beam, local artists and creators will be able to create tours of Zambia and connect the tours to NFTs placed around the country. The NFTs will be created and sold by local artists and creators to showcase the amazing places Zambia has to offer.

Connecting the creators and places further in the value chain will also be key. There are many possibilities for marketing with lodges, safari operators, local food tours, and in person events as the NFTs that will be collected by users could be used as discount codes, free night stays and physical event access.

The best part of this project will be that anyone and everyone can create a tour. They can partner with groups, organizations, NGOs and businesses to increase their reach.

There is also a large possibility of increasing the impact of the project by working to share out funds received with organizations within the specific areas that tours are located.

This project is envisioned to be a bottom up project that increases and creates impact for communities that have the least amount of access to existing tourism systems right now!

Artists will always own their original NFTs and be able to sell them on a marketplace of their choice. Watermarked versions will be collectible through ticket sales and placed at locations!

ARTIST ORIGINAL

dSAFARI WATERMARKED COLLECTIBLE

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

This project will solely use NMKR to mint NFTs that are collected by users. The volume of NFTs will depend on the number of tours created, but at the current moment, there are 4 organizations interested in using a platform like this, but are yet to be confirmed.

NMKR will benefit from minting fees from NFTs and the aim would be to create post card style NFTs that are collected by users. These would not be NFTs exactly, but FTs that are a n/n mint. The artists would then be able to mint 1/1 pieces that can be sold and exhibited on the platform.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

Number of NFTs minted

Number of tickets sold

Number of artists onboarded

Number of tours created

Number of 1/1 pieces sold

Number of FT postcards collected

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

The outputs of this project will be shared via social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Updates on progress will also be shared via other partners working on blockchain initiatives in Zambia such as BICOS and the Young Emerging Artists Initiative.

As the project onboards creators of tours, the creators will be highlighted and their links to their art showcased.

This project will allow for further research to be done on enhancing tourism in other countries and expand the reach of Cardano into new African markets. If this project is successful, tours will be created across Africa that showcases works of organizations, communities, artists and tour operators that increase exposure to their digital offerings for the future of tourism.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

I have lived and worked in Zambia as a social entrepreneur for the last 9 years and cofounded Nature's Nectar, a honey company focused on preserving forests through sustainable honey production.

With this venture, we have worked with over 3,000 small scale beekeepers in rural areas, partnered with 4 conservation organizations and have been instrumental in the success of carbon credit initiatives with one of our partners.

The connections I have made over this time has allowed me to meet multiple people and organizations that aim to work with marginalized communities.

I now live in the capital city, Lusaka and have connected with blockchain enthusiasts and developers, artists and their advocates and many people who aim to increase decentralization across the country.

I will work tirelessly to ensure full transparency with this project and ensure that all ADA is spent wisely on tours and projects that increase access to tourism for all, creators and tourists alike.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The objectives of this project are to:

1. increase the number of tours offered by artists and creators in Zambia.
2. Number of tours offered in Zambia
3. increase the exposure of artwork by local Zambian artists
4. Number of artists participating in the creation of tours
5. increase income of tour creators through ticket sales
6. amount of ADA received by creators compared to no sales
7. increase accessibility of tourism sector for Zambians
8. number of tickets sold to local Zambians.
9. Increase partnerships between participating organizations.
10. number of organizations partnering on tours and marketing campiagns.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Milestone 1:

• Hold workshop for artists and creators to explain the Cardano Beam/dSAFARI system.
• A 3-4 day workshop will be held in Zambia with artists participating in the Young Emerging Artists Initiative to showcase how to use Cardano Beam, NMKR and further understand the opportunities around blockchain as a whole. This workshop will be co-facilitated by Dmitry Shibaev of Dynamic Strategies, BICOS and myself. It will allow for the full understanding of the Cardano Beam system, NMKR and dSAFARI. This workshop will use parts of this guide for facilitation: https://dynamicstrategies.io/docs/workshop-content-guide/
• November 2023 - 35,000 ADA

Milestone 2:

• Create 5 tours around Zambia with local creators.
• Creation of tours will occur post workshop and allow for creators to take time to digitize art pieces, create tourism guides and mint NFTs and FTs for the tours. Each tour will consist of multiple pieces and pay for the artwork created by artists. The tours will be created either by individuals or in groups of artists.
• January 2024 - May 2024 - 1,500 ADA/tour - 7,500 ADA Total

Milestone 3:

• Develop 1 partnership and national tour with an existing tourism organization/company/NGO.
• Existing tourism organizations have many partnerships and access to organizations that can help grow the dSAFARi brand and the associated tours. To increase their own digital reach, we would aim to distribute 7,500 ADA to an organization to create their branded 'National Tourism Guide', pay creators for their work, mint NFTs and FTs, advertise their ticket(s) and offer marketing opportunities, such as discounts, to tourism companies and tourists.
• April 2024 - 7,500 ADA

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1:

• Understanding of the Cardano Beam system and minting of tickets, NFTs, and FTs.
• Number of participants aiming to create tours.
• Public report on workshop participation with feedback from participants and facilitators.
• Result: Direct indication of the intended number of tours to be created by artists, creators and organizations.

Milestone 2:

• Creation of tours created between January and May 2024.
• Number of artists/creators engaged in tour creation.
• Number of tickets sold to each tour.
• Result: Tours created and tickets being sold to general public via Cardano Beam.

Milestone 3:

• Engagement with organizations that could use the platform.
• MOU for working relationship with 1 organization
• Creation of branded national tour with 'Digital Zambia Tourism Guide'
• Result: National guide being sold and used for tourism across Zambia.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Onboarding Workshop for Creators: 35,000ADA

Creation of Tours with Creators in Zambia post Workshop: 7,500 ADA

Guide Development for National Tour with Organization: 7,500 ADA

Project Management, Reporting, Marketing: 10,000 ADA

Total: 60,000 ADA

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Workshop

• The costs of the workshop have been estimated to be around $10,000 for about 50 participants, food, venue and transportation. This will be the largest cost for the event as it will be the most centralized and require the most organization.

Tours and Minting

• With the tours minting anywhere many unique NFTs and generally being placed in many locations, the cost of each tour will vary. With each tour using 1,500 ADA per tour, this allotment of ADA should allow for tours to have high enough budgets to continue development in the future via addition of new NFTs and locations.

Guide Development for National Tour

• This guide will need a lot of work to identify locations across the country and to collect unique images of each location. With this being a national guide that will be used to explore the entire country, people from each province may need to be engaged and paid to contribute information on locations and to collect special images of locations.

Project Management and Reporting

• Project management and reporting will take a lot of time and effort to complete. It will need to be a position or 2 that helps pay people for their time and coordination of project inputs, reporting, and other tasks that will arise with organizing the workshop and tours.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept