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

Guest blog by Alberto Borgato.  Alberto heads the Quality and Environment Management and Jesolo4All units for the Jesolo municipality (Gestione Qualità e Ambiente, Comune di Jesolo).  He has a degree in economics. 

The City of Jesolo (about 30 km from Venice) is an important holiday location with about 5 million visitors every year. With a 15 km beach of golden sand, our main customers are family and children. By this, our attention is focused on their needs.  All the tourist structures such as hotel, rent apartments, beach concessions, restaurants, etc. are tourist oriented and in the last 10-15 years several of them have been upgraded and now are able to accommodate people with disabilities or families with baby buggy.

Our role, as administrators of the city, is to gather all information about easy accessibility, to validate access  with a team of experts (some of whom are people with disabilities) who ascertain on site all the necessary measures and data,  and to publish this information in order to let visitors with disabilities know what to expect from their holiday in Jesolo.

At the moment we have gathered informations about:

· 15 hotels

· 13 restaurants

· 2 beach concessions (this number will rise as soon as our holiday season start)

· 2 disco club

· 1 water fun park

· Aquarium, reptilarium and shark expo

· the gaming hall Venice casino

· 1 campground

· Pala Arrex (a multi purpose building for big events)

· All the seafront promenade

· The City Hall

· The main street (a promenade street which becomes an open air shopping center in summer), and the main squares of the town

More will follow.  All of this information is detailed reports that everyone can find on our tourism site on the Jesolo for All page.  By searching for “disabilities” you can find all the hotels that have published detailed information about their own accessibility by the use of records with data, descriptions and pictures.  Some of them are already in English but for the remainders the reports are only in Italian for the moment.

Another interesting project of the Municipality of Jesolo is about the accessibility of playgrounds for children. “How to make playground without barriers“, focused on the planning of a playground using concepts such as “Universal Design”.

Tourism for All UK (TFI) is a national charity dedicated to standards of world class tourism which are welcoming to all. TFI is a prime mover in improving access to knowledge about tourism, travel, and hospitality that is accessible (see for example, the article here).  With the Olympics and Paralympics only months away, the UK is gearing up to welcome the world’s finest athletes along with thousands of visitors from across the globe. TFI and Hudson’s Heritage are working together with DisabledGo and the tourist boards to bring accessibility in the UK tourism market to the forefront, in the form of an Open Britain app which will give ‘on the go’ disabled visitors the ability to search for sites close to their current location with the facilities they need, as well as being able to browse by selected profile. This will be available in March and supported through the website, which will also offer an unrivalled nationwide search of accessible tourism sites. Companies wanting to ensure that their business is represented should contact peter.diggles@hhgroup.co.uk

Facilities for disabled visitors are often lacking, and where they do exist, are not notified to potential customers. This means the industry is missing out on a substantial potential market. As the UK sees an influx in foreign visitors for the games, there will be many who need these facilities, and businesses of all kinds need to be prepared, ensuring any equipment they have is serviced, making improvements in areas that currently aren’t accessible and ensuring that they share their accessibility messages with potential visitors. In addition businesses need to ensure their staff are fully equipped and confident to welcome any guest, whatever their ability, which includes understanding facilities available and how to operate these.

Tourism for All UK is a national charity dedicated to standards of world class tourism which are welcoming to all. Tourism for All UK contains the knowledge gained over the past 30 years in providing information to the public, especially to older or disabled people, with the only UK helpline, on where their specific access needs can be met so that they can fully participate in travel and leisure. They also champion the cause of accessible tourism with policy-makers in the UK and Europe. In prompting the visitor industry to cater for all needs, TFA has also developed an unrivalled knowledge and expertise to help businesses make changes that are practical and realistic. For further information contact info@tourismforall.org.uk

Hudson’s Heritage is part of the Heritage House Group. Probably best known as publishers of Hudson’s Historic Houses & Gardens – a market-leader for 25 years – the group also provides a range of other B2B services for the heritage sector. Its contract publishing division has produced their souvenir guidebooks for many of the leading heritage attractions for many years. The company has worked closely with the HHA and other leading heritage groups over a long period.

DisabledGo is an award-winning disability organisation in operation since 2000, producing detailed online access guides to a huge range of venues. DisabledGo is one of the largest disability organisations in Europe. Passionate about grassroots consultation, they have to date involved over 800 groups of disabled people and hold 3 feedback sessions per week across the UK and Ireland.

OpenBritain is the UK’s biggest directory of accessible accommodation and travel.

Follow them on Twitter: @tourismforalluk @HudsonsHeritage @DisabledGo

Europe’s leading Accessible Travel organisation, Tourism For all UK is teaming up with the global travel community on Tripbod.com.  The aim is to find as many local people as possible with a knowledge of accessibility in their area to become ‘Tripbods’ and offer their local knowledge to visitors.  Tourism For All’s Carrie-Ann Fleming, says “it’s all about empowering truly independent travel. Connecting with a like-minded local Tripbod before you arrive means you get straight to the knowledge source you need. Disabled people already have all the knowledge they need gained from experiences, good or bad, to offer others with similar concerns invaluable local travel advice and information.”  Tripbod’s founder Sally Broom points out that every product listed on Tripbod has an accessibility rating.

The announcement comes within days of Easyjet hitting the news for two cases of discrimination against disabled travellers and Broom acknowledges the timeliness of the partnership. “These cases reflect poorly on the travel industry and we want to show another side of the story. 2012 is a massive year for travel in the UK and it would be both a shame and a failure if visitors are unable to enjoy fully their visit due to poor information.

Fleming adds, “The initial focus of the partnership will be on recruiting Tripbods in the UK with a knowledge of local accessibility, but the existing Tripbod network is global and we are welcoming everyone everywhere with a passion for independent accessible travel to join us. What’s more, we will be offering simple and effective training for Tripbods who want to help disabled travellers but need a bit more advice and support.”

Anyone interested to learn more can visit www.tripbod.com/accessibletravel
or email hello@tripbod.com.

Scotland made disabled access part of its entertainment licensing laws in October this year (provision for disabled visitors is now a condition for getting a new alcohol licence).  Though current UK equality law says disabled people must receive an equal experience to non-disabled peers, the reality is different, and music fans who have disabilities often find themselves excluded from live music events. The UK charity Attitude Is Everything has created a Charter of Best Practice to help live music venues adapt. As part of the initiative, it’s launching the State of Access report, a comprehensive study based on two years of research across 100 venues around the UK.   Attitude Is Everything is the brainchild of Suzanne Bull who – at 4ft 3 in tall – got trapped between the barriers at the front of a festival stage 20 years ago, when there was no such thing as access for people with disabilities.  ”I had 100,000 people pushing behind me,” she says. “It was a very dangerous situation but luckily a security guard saw me and pulled me out. I remember thinking: ‘If I get out of  this alive, I will do something to improve gig access for disabled people.’ [That festival] now has a regular clientele of 700 disabled customers, an accessible campsite and viewing platforms at nearly all the stages.” (Source, The Guardian).

The New Zealand National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD) has set up a captioning working group with the aim of establishing equal access to TV and movies for deaf and hearing impaired people in this country.  A 2011 survey, “Captioning in New Zealand”, conducted by members of the group, showed the deaf and hearing impaired community felt a strong sense of injustice and frustration at the way poor TV, home video and cinema captioning denied them the simple pleasures of relaxation, entertainment and access to information and education.  Over the next 12 months the
NFD Captioning Working Group will push for legislation to make the captioning of TV programmes in New Zealand compulsory – a change favoured by 86% of the  Captioning New Zealand survey respondents.  New Zealand TV captioning is among the worst in the western world with even Uganda having a better service. While some captioning is funded by NZ On Air and a high quality captioning service is provided by TV1, TV2 and TV3 it amounts to less than 10% of total TV hours each week across all free to air and subscriber pay channels.  Captioning is about equal access for both hearing and non-hearing people. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons, ratified by New Zealand, states that all persons with disabilities should enjoy equal access to television programmes, films, theatre and cultural activities in accessible formats.  Many countries,  Australia and the USA included, have mandatory captioning legislation. We are seriously lagging behind the rest of the world and it’s time we caught up.

Members of the NFD Captioning Working Group come from t he NFD and Deaf Aotearoa.

Source: NFD press release.

Barbados Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy told a recent Inclusive Tourism Symposium that the economic benefits of making Barbados fully accessible to all tourists should not be ignored. Noting that in Barbados’ fourth largest market , Canada, people with disabilities account for Can$25 billion in consumer spending, and noting that 2.7 million Britains with disabiites travel annually, Sealy pointed out that it was important to recognize the value of creating accessible spaces for all. He urged   that the efforts by the tourism industry in Barbados to improve accessibility continue and increase. The Ministry has fully supported the development of a Fully Accessible Barbados programme which has just launched a new website to highlight accessible areas on the island.

Scott Rains, of the highly regarded Rolling Rains Report also spoke at the forum, where he pointed out that creating accessibleenvironments not only benefited people with disabilities, but retirees of the “silver tsunami”, who have the time, money, and desire to travel.

According to Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, not only is making tourism more accessible a social responsibility, but there is also a compelling business case to boost the competitiveness of tourism in Europe.   Why? The population in Europe is aging: by 2050 the number of people aged over 65 will triple that of 2003 and the over-80 will be 5 times more numerous that they are at the moment.  This represents a huge market potential which today remains vastly under-served. Worldwide the number of people with impairments accounts for 600-900 million, representing a significant potential market for Europe.   Many examples show that by implementing basic adjustments to a facility, providing accurate information, and understanding the needs of disabled people, an increased number of visitors has resulted.  Also, improving the accessibility of tourism services increases the  quality and enjoyment for all tourists.  The European Commission is committed to mainstream accessibility in tourism by:

• raising awareness, sensitizing stakeholders and economic operators in the tourism sector
• gathering knowledge about demand from travellers with special access needs
• identifying options to improve the offer of accessible tourism services

The Commission has a publication on improving information on accessible tourism for people with disabilities.  It also has a programme called Calypso which aims to facilitate tourism access for groups for which going on holiday represents a difficult or even impossible undertaking.

Two new text books on accessible tourism are available through the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) from Channel View Publications. The first is “Concepts and Issues” (eds: Dimitrios Buhalis and Simon Darcy), which sets out to  explore and document the current theoretical approaches, foundations and issues  in the study of accessible tourism.  Professor Nigel Morgan, The Welsh Centre for Tourism Research states that this volume harnesses “the best conceptual  developments on the topic” and that it will “take accessible tourism and universal design debates into the mainstream of academic enquiryand industry practice“

The second volume is “Best Practice in Accessible Tourism” (eds: Buhalis, Darcy, and Ivor Ambrose).  It focuses on policy and best practice in accessible tourism, reflecting the ”state-of -the-art” as expressed in a selection of international chapters. It brings together global expertise in planning, design and management to inform and stimulate providers of travel, transport, accommodation, leisure and tourism services to serve guests with disabilities, seniors and the wider markets that require good accessibility. Chapter 8, written by Sandra Rhodda of Access Tourism New Zealand, describes the state of accessible tourism in this country.  Overall, the book gives ample evidence that accessible tourism organisations and destinations can expand their target markets as well as improve the quality of their service offering, leading to greater customer satisfaction, loyalty and expansion of business.  Accessible tourism is not only about providing access to people with disabilities but also it addresses the creation of universally designed environments that can support people that may have temporary disabilities, families with young children, the ever increasing ageing population as well as creating a safer environment for employees to work. Noel Scott, of the University of Queensland, Australia says that the volume “provides a ‘state-of-the-art” assessment of both theory and practice. This book establishes a new field of study and provides the benchmark against which other contributions will be judged. It integrates the work of all the key players and should be read by academics, managers and government policy makers.”

  VisitEngland, the national tourist board, recently launched a new version of the Access Statement Online Tool, aimed at helping businesses cater for visitors with access needs.  This new version is specifically tailored for pubs and has been created in partnership with the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA). BBPA – the UK’s leading organisation representing the brewing and pub sector – has members who account for 96% of the beer brewed in the UK and operate around half of Britain’s 51,000 pubs.

The online tool provides detailed guidance on the information that may be required by people with access needs when visiting a pub.   VisitEngland requires any business that is part of the quality assessment schemes for accommodation and attractions to have an Access Statement.   The national tourist board is also working with partners like the British Hospitality Association to provide tailored guidance for the many varied experiences visitors can have when on holiday in England.

The new tool encourages businesses to write a general introduction describing the location (city centre, countryside, coast), and to summarise any specific services and facilities suitable for people with access needs. In addition, information may also cover the following areas:

Pre-Arrival – transport services, a description of the streets in the area surrounding the pub (e.g. paved/cobbled/level/uneven), information provided in alternative formats such as large print and audio.

Car Parking and Arrival – car parking, drop off points, alternative entry points, number of steps, handrails and ramps.

Bar & Bar Area and Dining Area/Restaurant – access to the area and layout, lighting, seating and tables, floor surfaces, alternative formats of menus available.

Beer Garden/Outdoor Area/Smoking Area – accessibility of outdoor furniture,
service offered to customers in outdoor area, layout (e.g. pavement, terrace, play area).

Additional areas that are covered include: public toilets, accommodation and future plans for improvement.

Ross Calladine, VisitEngland’s Skills, Welcome & Accessibility Manager notes that people with access needs require specific information about a venue in advance in order to be able to make an informed decision about whether an establishment can cater sufficiently for their needs.   “Pubs, like any other tourist venue, should provide as much information to visitors as possible – this will help to enhance the visitor experience and also highlight areas where the business could improve” said Calladine.

Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive, British Beer & Pub Association said that the association was delighted to work with VisitEngland on this tool. “Access Statements are a great way for pubs to ensure customers with any specific access needs have the information they need.   Whilst it is not always easy for pubs to adapt what are often historic buildings, great service and accurate information are key in ensuring that as many people as possible enjoy Britain’s pubs. This tool will play a valuable role in enhancing pubs as the home of great hospitality in the UK.”

Once a business has created their Access Statement they can then make this information readily available to visitors. Pubs can promote their statement on their website if they have one, or post it where they have a listing on a company site or a generic ‘pub finder’ site. It should also be kept on hand for bar staff to use when describing over the phone what facilities they have.

Hotel News UK reports that hoteliers throughout the United Kingdom have made strides to boost the number of accessible rooms in recent months as London gears up for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  In doing so, they hope to capitalize on the more than £2-billion (US$3.2-billion) tourist segment for disabled people.  There are more than 1,540 hotels and bed and breakfasts listed on the Government-backed Inclusive London website, which was launched in March 2011 to promote accessible rooms to all tourists visiting the city. There are a further 122 accessible hostels.

A lot of work has gone into improving accommodation access, says Ufi Ibrahim, CE of the British Hospitality Association.  “We’ve been working with tourism organization Tourism for All to raise awareness.  Many hoteliers in London have been doing sort of small quick fixes in order to enable some rooms to be usable for people who have accessibility problems—ramps, for example.”

Other changes are more long-term.   InterContinental Hotels Group, which has 294 accessible rooms in London, invested more than £12 million (US$19.3 million) seven years ago into its portfolio to ensure compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act. The resulting efforts saw the inclusion of tactile signage and ceiling track hoists in select locations. IHG also requires all employees to undergo training programs on how to accommodate guests with disabilities, both during orientation and then once every six months for review.

By summer 2012, there will be 2,667 accessible rooms in London, 1,392 of which will be wheelchair friendly.  But with a potential market of 78 million American and 75 million European disabled visitors, friends and families according to VisitEngland, it is uncertain whether supply will meet demand, Ibrahim said. Hoteliers are ramping up development efforts in an attempt to do just that. Premier Inn plans to open four additional properties before the Games. The group also recently opened the London Stratford Premier Inn, the first among the company portfolio to offer fixed tracker hoisting mechanisms. Hilton Worldwide encourages development of accessible rooms through a flexible room layout, said Alex Humphrey, senior manager of safety and security for the U.K. and Western Europe. “Each hotel has the ability to customize rooms with accessibility equipment to increase the number of accessible rooms, in addition to providing dedicated equipment for those guests with hearing impairments,” he said.

Disabled World reports that the Special Needs Group (SNG) is launching a powerful, unprecedented online Accessible Travel Advocate course for all travel professionals. The SNG is the leading global provider of special needs equipment for the travel industry.  The one-hour, three-module program objectives focus on understanding accessible travel, building expertise in accessible travel and demonstrating accessible travel advocacy skills and runs November 14.    The accessible travel market is the  fastest-growing segment of the travel market, and this is the first time travel professionals can become conversant with it through online study and testing, available here.

Special Needs Group has also formed a new advisory board, the SNG Inner Circle, consisting of key players in the travel industry such as cruise line CEOs, etc. The board will convene several times per year to discuss key travel accessibility issues and how to improve travel experiences for individuals with special needs.

The 2011 M-Enabling Summit and Showcase for Mobile Applications and Services for Seniors and Persons with Disabilities will bring together leaders in the global emerging mobile accessibility eco-system to foster discussion and decision-making among mobile technology, aging and disability experts, and policy professionals in the United States and abroad. The Summit’s Inaugural Briefing Session, hosted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will cover the latest legislative and regulatory steps taken by the United States and other countries on mobile accessibility. The event is presented by the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict) and E.J. Krause & Associates (in cooperation with the  International Telecommunication Union and the FCC.  Participants will include representatives from AT&T, Verizon, W3C, Daisy Consortium, the AAPD, AFB, and UNCRPD, amongst others.

Key tracks will highlight new innovations addressing the specific needs of users living with different types of disability, as well as major emerging market opportunities, such as accessible and assistive applications and solutions for travel and tourism.

“More than 5.4 billion mobile phones are in service today while, according to the latest WHO-World Bank Report on Disability, 1 billion persons live with disabilities – 54 million in the United States alone – including a large proportion of seniors,” said conference co-organizer Axel Leblois, Executive Director of G3ict. “The M-Enabling Summit will be the first opportunity for all stakeholders involved to participate in a groundbreaking sharing of experience among mobile industry, private sector leaders, senior and disability organizations, IT professionals, operators, apps developers, government, and accessibility experts.”

The Summit will be held in Washington D.C. from December 5-6, 2011 at the Gaylord
National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor.

All businesses with at least one employee will have to comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Customer Service Standard taking effect Jan. 1, 2012.  These standards include that businesses are required to develop customer service policies and procedures for serving people with disabilities, to train staff, volunteers and contractors to serve customers with disabilities, to let customers with disabilities provide feedback on how their needs have been met, to establish a process to respond and take action on any complaints, and to have a policy on allowing people to use their own assistive devices (e.g. screen reader, cane, wheelchair, oxygen tank) to access a business’s goods and services.  This includes accessing menus.  Currently, some Ontarian restaurants offer large print or braille menus, but these can not be read by all guests. Others put their menus on their website as a PDF, which is not accessible to some.  Still others put menus on Facebook – which is notoriously inaccessible.

Now Ontarian restaurateurs have a solution in aMENU  -  a website developed by Geoff Collis – where  participating restaurants can place their menus so that they can be accessed not only with assistive devices but portable devices such as mobile phones.   Menus can be read before a patron even gets to an establishment.   The first restaurant leading the way by participating is Macy’s Diner & Delicatessen in Mississauga.  Owner Hans Sturzenbecher has clearly understood the need for accessibility in all aspects of his establishment and is the first restaurateur to have his Accessible Menu coded for accessibility on the site so that Ontarians, visitors, or tourists with disabilities and mobile phone users can access it with their assistive devices either at home, en route or in the restaurant itself. Restaurant owners wishing to know more about this initiative can access a presentation, contact aMenu, or visit their website.

The Prince Edward Island (Canada) government is encouraging tourism operators in the province to verify whether their properties are fully accessible for people with disabilities. The program is being launched to ensure when people with disabilities go to businesses and accommodations, they get what they’re expecting. The province has signed on with Quality Tourism Services (QTS) which will independently verify the accessibility of a property. QTS already evaluates hotels and B&Bs on the Island for a number of factors, and will now inspect properties and give them a designation, either limited or full mobile accessible, and sight or hearing accessible. “We’re hoping over time that is going to give a level of comfort to the consumers that are going into that business,” said Roxanne Carmody of QTS, “that if they’re looking for a symbol, they’re looking for the Access Advisor symbol, because they know it has been verified and they know what they’re getting.”

Any operator who wants to have an accessibility symbol in the Tourism Guide will have to go through QTS and get evaluated. For the 2012 guide, while the inspections are being done, all operations that now say they are accessible will get a partial accessibility symbol. In 2013, only ones that have gone through the Access Advisor program will be able to have those symbols in the guide. Tourism PEI said it’s important for people to get what they are expecting. QTS has already evaluated more than 100 Island properties.

AccessibilityOnline represents a collaborative training program between the ADA National Network and the US Access Board. The program includes a series of free webinars and audio conferences on different topics of accessibility. Sessions are held on a monthly basis and cover a variety of topics concerning accessibility to the built environment, information and communication technologies, and transportation. The training is being coordinated and hosted by the Great Lakes ADA Center to provide accurate and quality training on the Architectural Barriers Act and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA/ABA) Accessibility Guidelines and on electronic and information technology accessibility standards (Section 508).  The next section is on accessible marinas and boating facilities and is being held on November 3rd.  You can submit questions for the webinar here.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), in its ongoing effort to ensure equal access to air transportation for all travelers has proposed a regulation that would require airlines to make over the next two years their websites accessible to people with disabilities and ensure that their ticket agents do the same.  DOT also proposed that airlines make automated airport kiosks at U.S. airports accessible to passengers with disabilities. U.S. airports that jointly own, lease or control such kiosks with airlines would also have responsibility for ensuring the accessibility of automated airport kiosks. 
                
“I strongly believe that airline passengers with disabilities should have equal access to the same services as all other travelers,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  “The Department of Transportation is committed to ensuring that airline passengers are treated fairly, and today’s action is part of that effort.”

Websites would be required to meet the standards for accessibility contained in the widely accepted Website Content Accessibility Guidelines.  The requirement would apply to U.S. and foreign carriers with websites marketing air transportation to U.S. consumers for travel within, to or from the United States.  Small ticket agents would be exempt from the requirement to have accessible websites. 
                
In addition, airlines and airports that use automated kiosks for services such as printing boarding passes and baggage tags would have to ensure that any kiosk ordered 60 days after the rule takes effect is accessible.  Standards for accessibility would be based on standards for automated transaction machines set by the Department of Justice in its 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act rule.  This requirement would apply to U.S. and foreign carriers and U.S. airports that own, lease or control automated airport kiosks at U.S. airports with 10,000 or more annual boardings.     

This proposal is the latest in a series of DOT rulemakings to implement the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA).  In the ACAA rule issued in May 2008, DOT required carriers, among other things, to make discounts available to passengers with disabilities who cannot use inaccessible web sites and therefore must make telephone or in-person reservations. Also, if passengers with disabilities are unable to use the kiosk because it is not accessible, carriers are required to provide equivalent service, such as having an airline employee assist in operating the kiosk.  However, these provisions do not give passengers with disabilities, especially those with visual and mobility impairments, independent access to the websites and kiosks, and in this final rule the Department committed to exploring how to make websites and kiosks accessible. 

 The proposal is available on the Internet at www.regulations.gov, docket DOT-OST-2011-0177.

The Italian Ministry of Tourism has created a Manifesto promoting Accessible Tourism (English and Italian versions).   It is part of its commitment to put into effect Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Article 30 – Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport – includes that States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to take part on an equal basis with others in cultural life, including enjoying films, theatre and other cultural activities, in accessible formats;  access to places for cultural performances or services, such as theatres, museums, cinemas, libraries and tourism services, and, as far as possible, enjoy access to monuments and sites of national cultural importance; and access tourism venues.

Chairman of the Italian Agency for Tourism (ENIT), Matteo Marzotto said that accessibility means lack of architectural, cultural and sensory barriers.  “It relates to people with particular needs, not only regarding movement but also chronic health issues (people with food and environment allergies, the blind, the deaf or mentally disabled people, small children and the elderly, etc.). The involvement of all these visitors and their families in tourism has a great numerical as well as psychological, impact”.

Following the signing in Vicenza, in May 2011, the new Italian National Tourism Code (Decree 79 of 5/23/2011) was passed into law, to be in force from 21 June.  This marks a major step forward in the Italian legislation on Accessible Tourism.  The Minister of Tourism, Michela Vittoria Brambilla is Chair of the Executive Council Board of the UN World Tourism Organisation and in that role in Nairobi in July 2011 has proposed to 154 countries and 400 other WTO member organizations to sign up to the Manifesto. The first interested countries can sign the document already from the next UNWTO meeting which should take place in Cambodia in October.

The first international NGO to support the Manifesto is the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT).  ENAT Board Member, Dr. Angelika Laburda signed the Manifesto on behalf of ENAT at the Gitando 2011 Feira da Vicenza trade fair on 25th March 2011, along with the Minister. Laburda said that the document raises awareness of the importance of providing accessibility for all tourists.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the ONCE Foundation for Cooperation
and Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities and the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) have signed a Cooperation Agreement aimed at developing ever more accessible tourism for persons with disabilities (Madrid, Spain, 16 September).

“The facilitation of tourist travel for persons with disabilities is a central part of responsible and sustainable tourism,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. The Executive Vice President of the ONCE Foundation, Alberto Duran López, stressed the importance of counting on the support of UNWTO. “We are happy to work with UNWTO and ENAT and trust this partnership will significantly advance equal opportunities and rights for persons with disabilities,” he said.

The President of ENAT, Lilian Müller, expressed the hope to “bring a greater awareness of ‘Accessible Tourism for All’ among UNWTO members and to provide  them with new tools and resources so that they can make effective progress in  this growing field of tourism”.

Aimed at enabling universal access to tourism facilities and services, the Agreement entails a series of initiatives, including awareness-raising, technical support, indicators and training in the field of accessibility to national tourism administrations and tourism enterprises. The trilateral accord also involves the promotion of traineeships for young persons with disabilities, with a view towards their integration in the labour market. It further encompasses the funding of pilot projects in destinations, involving the application of new technologies, to facilitate the participation of persons with disabilities in tourism and leisure-related activities.

The Cooperation Agreement builds on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (30 March 2007), and the UNWTO Resolution on Accessible Tourism for All, adopted by the UNWTO General Assembly in 2005 and prepared in collaboration with the ONCE Foundation.

The Rolling Rains Report writes that the first international certification programme for accessible tourism destinations has been developed and carried out in Lousã, Portugal by the Belgian Accessibility Office, Toegangelijkheidsbureau (TGB).

The Accessible Tourism Destination Certification Programme or ATDCP is based on an extensive audit of the Destination Management Organisation’s accessible  tourism policies, infrastructure, transport, services and visitor information, and includes accessibility assessments of the outdoor environment, overnight accommodation, attractions, and activities and offers for visitors including persons with disabilities, older persons and families with small children.

Designed and developed by accessibility and tourism experts, TGB Belgium, the ATDCP is a completely new destination management tool which provides an accurate measure of the excellence of an accessible tourism destination, based on strictly defined criteria.

The Accessible Destination Certification Programme involves assessment meetings with destination managers coupled with on-site audits and document analysis, thus building a picture of the capacity and level of achievement of the accessible destination.  Each element of the assessment is scored against a set of indicators, thus enabling managers to track the destination’s performance over time and allowing for benchmarking across any number of destinations.

The Programme also provides a tailor-made Action Plan for destination managers, with priorities for improvements to be made in the different facets of the accessible destination.  The Action Plan aims to ensure that the destination will continue to develop and improve its offers to all visitors, giving them fulfilling, accessible experiences, whatever their interests and regardless of their age or abilities.  The TGB Accessible Tourism Destination Certificate is valid for two years, after which time it must be renewed through a re-assessment process.

For background on this advance, see the European Network for Accessible Tourism website.

This year’s November Pro-ICAT conference  Tourism For All in Malaysia will discuss just that, amongst other things.  With an emphasis on what developing accessible tourism can do to promote national and regional economic development, the conference aims to:

• highlight the existence of Accessible Tourism through hosting events that will draw attention to this niche in the tourism sector
• provide information on Accessible Tourism to the public locally and internationally
• make known to the public the obstacles and challenges in Accessible Tourism and ways to overcome them
•  encourage a tourism system in Malaysia that welcomes people with disabilities having good liaison between disabled organizations and tourism organizations so that attractions can be facilitated more systematically.
• encourage the Ministry of Tourism in Malaysia to do more research in promoting Accessible Tourism.
• advocate for the removal of architectural and transportation barriers that prevent people with disabilities from sharing fully in all aspects of our society including going for tours.