17 May

Website About Access Tourism for People with Disabilities in Spain: Puedo Viajar

Posted by Sandra Rhodda in Accessible Tourism, Destinations and operators, eAccess, Inclusive Tourism, Infrastructure, International AT heroes, Travel, World Access Tourism.

Guest article by Manuel Calvillo, Project Manager, Puedo Viajar

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While for most people organizing and planning holidays and accommodation is already part of the journey and an enjoyable experience, for people with disability the process of looking for information can be very unsatisfactory and stressful.  This is because it is really hard to find destinations, accommodations, attractions, restaurants, museums, adventure activities and other tourism facilities that provide relevant and reliable information about the accessibility of their facilities.  Faced with this situation  FEJIDIF(Provincial Federation of Associations of People with Physic and Organic Disabilities of Jaén –Spain) decided to create an e-portal (Puedo Viajar) about  accessible tourism based on social networks and Web 2.0 where people with disabilities can ask for information, share experiences, and find reliable information about the accessibility of tourist facilities.

 Puedo Viajar has two main sections. One of them is aimed at businesses, professionals, and administrations  who want to publicize and promote their accessible tourist attractions and facilities  in a space that speaks directly to travelers and tourists with disability.  The other is aimed at anyone interested in accessible tourism. We have developed a set of tools for those who register as members on the site. Through these tools, anyone may perform different activities to help plan their trips and vacations. Some of these functions include to:

  • Assess from personal experience the accessibility of tourism facilities and share this information with all members.
  • Ask other members about accessibility in their travel and places visited by them.
  • Recommend, critique, compliment, and create feedback about tourism facilities.
  • Be able to leave comments on the inputs and experiences shared in Puedo Viajar by other users or by companies and owners of touristic facilities.
  • Share videos and photos about their experiences on their trips and vacation.
  • Send direct messages to other members of the community,
  • Contact directly managers of tourist facilities featured on Puedo Viajar.
  • Select, store and remove tourist experiences posted by other users into a personal travel folder to organize and plan future trips and vacations.

Puedo Viajar has a profile on Facebook and Twitter and a blog in which we have been collecting the most relevant information in the media about accessible tourism since November 2009.  We are already over 200 members in the community, with almost 60 shared experiences. Currently we are working on the final development of these applications. We expect to complete the Spanish version of the website by June 2011, after which we plan an Englis version. Any person, government, association or corporation interested in participating or having more information about this project, please contact Manuel Calvillo through manolocalvillo @ fejidif.org / info@puedoviajar.es

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