Access Tourism NZ TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, AND AGEING BOOMERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND WORLDWIDE

The European Commission’s “Access City Award”, the first European Award for Accessible Cities, has now been launched. This annual award aims to highlight the European cities that are taking the most effective and innovative action to improve their accessibility for disabled citizens.  The European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) reports that the award will celebrate and showcase the most successful initiatives that allow people with disabilities to participate fully in society. Accessibility is not difficult to implement, this is the initiative’s key message.  Approximately 80 million Europeans have disabilities. 16% of them are of working age, whilst almost 70% are over 60. As disability is so closely linked to ageing, it is likely to affect everyone at some point in their life. Accessibility is therefore a key element of the European Union’s disability policy.  The EU regards accessibility for all of its citizens to public buildings, transportation, information and communications to be essential in order to ensure sustainable economic and social benefits in the long term.  In addition, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, accessibility will remain at the core of the new EU Disability Strategy 2010-2020 (ENAT).