Originally from the South of France, Zakia moved to Scotland when she was 21 years old. For several years, she was Director of International Partner Development at the Homeless World Cup Foundation, a global network of street soccer projects. After her health took a bad turn and she had to fight bowel cancer, she decided to take a break to travel. At the end of 2015, she spent time in Greece and volunteered in a refugee camp on Lesvos Island. It is when she returned that she decided to set-up her own social enterprise: Invisible Cities.
Invisible Cities is a community interest company that trains people who have experienced homelessness to become walking tour guides of their own city and they offer off the beaten track, personal tours, highlighting stories of real people, while raising awareness about social justice. You can find more information about them here www.invisible-cities.org.
It is while running Invisible Cities that Zakia also worked in partnership with Social Bite, the Social Enterprise Academy or most recently the TedSummit. Since its start in 2016, Invisible Cities is now in 4 cities across the UK: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and York with plans to expand further. They have been featured on UNILAD, Huffington Post UK or BBC Stories amongst others.
Keynote Title
Putting People at the Heart of Tourism
Abstract
Zakia Moulaoui Guery is the founder and CEO of award-winning social enterprise Invisible Cities. They train people affected by homelessness to become walking tour guides of their own city. They employ them to deliver unique, off the beaten track tours to tourists and locals.
From their recruitment to the design of their tours, they include people at the heart of everything they do. Zakia will speak about how tourism can be a real force for good and change for the people in our cities even though it may present certain challenges.