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

In January, Tourism Flanders did a survey of people with disabilities (PwDs) and their environment. The results show that PwDs use the same services, accommodations, and activities as the average Fleming.

The survey of the Accessible Travel Info Point of Tourism Flanders shows that accessible accommodation is increasing, although there is scope for improvement. For PwDs, the use of public transport on holiday is very important. Regular users are generally satisfied with this service. Sixty percent of tourists with disabilities take holiday in Flanders and elsewhere, but 12 % holidayed only in Flanders in the last three years. The coast is the most popular destination for PwDs (60%), but the popularity of cities is twice as high as the average Fleming. One big difference from the average holidaymaker, is that more time is taken in preparing for a holiday. PwDs inform themselves thoroughly, and check and double check access. If their holiday is in Flanders, 45% consulted the Flemish label for accessible tourism, which is awarded by Tourism Flanders. Almost all of those who use this system (A and A+ labelling) find it very reliable. Almost one third of those who looked for information on access made use of social media. Ninety-one percent of responders to the survey travel with other people.  Therefore, any inaccessible business looses not only the business of the PwD, but of their travelling companion as well. The survey is discussed in more detail in English here.

For this news release in Dutch, see here.

For more information about the progress Flanders is making in accessible tourism, see here (the label system), here (book on accessible accommodations in Flanders and Brussels), and here (outline of accessible tourism in Flanders).

 In 1963, the Esso Motor Hotell opened its doors in Laxå and welcomed its first guests. Fast-forward 50 years and the hotel chain has enjoyed strong growth, making its mark on both the Swedish and the international hotel industry along the way. In 1984, Esso Motor Hotell changed its name to Scandic Hotels, a chain that now has 155 hotels and around 30,000 rooms across Europe. All 155 Scandic hotels across the continent will be celebrating the anniversary of this sprightly 50 year-old at the weekend.

Over the years, Scandic has increased accessibility in its hotels. It was the first hotel chain to appoint a Director of Accessibility to work on improving accessibility for disabled guests.  Now all the hotels have rooms adapted to guests with special needs.  Scandic has also improved online  information about access at its hotel For further information, see here, here, and here.

Following on from many recent developments in accessible tourism in Spain (for example, see here,  here, and here), that country is working to make sure its National Parks offer nature for all. Installations are being adapted for people with disabilities, including adapting information panels and leaflets for the blind, having handrails and double-height windows, and having guides who use sign language.  More spacious facilities have been developed, paths have non-slip compact materials that are non-reflective, and trails are suitable for all.

Spain has fourteen national parks with a total of over 325,000 hectares.  The Spanish office of Europarc (the European Federation of Nature Reserves and National Parks) has published a catalogue of good practices carried out in Spain’s parks. These initiatives have removed barriers and continue to operate to make Spain’s National Parks a natural resource for everyone to enjoy.

The Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote, one of the seven Canary Islands, is an excellent example of an accessible park. Improvements carried out have made the park into a volcanic paradise which is accessible to anyone with a disability. Educational material includes information in Braille in several languages, and audiovisual productions incorporate sign language.  In Tenerife, also in the Canary Islands, the Teide National Park, which has UNESCO World Heritage designation, has a guide service for disabled people. By booking in advance, disabled people can discover the park’s huge biodiversity and enjoy spectacular views of the Teide from its viewing point. The Tablas de Daimiel park in Castile–La Mancha offers a similar service. Its La Laguna observatory adapts each group visit according to members’ disabilities.  The Picos de Europa National Park in the Region of Asturias has a room called ‘the cave’, where visitors can experience the different sounds and textures to be found in the ecosystems of the park. At the Sierra Nevada National Park in the province of Granada, Andalusia, you can recreate the realities of nature at a range of workshops on astronomy, ecology, textile production… all adapted for the disabled.

Some of  Spain’s National Parks offer direct vehicular access, such as Doñana (Andalusia), which also has UNESCO World Heritage designation, and Aiguestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici Park, in Catalonia.

Turismabile, in collaboration with Piedmont Region, is running an international Accessible Tourism conference in Tourin on June the 14th.  The conference is “Accessible Tourism and Piedmont for All”, which will be addressed by national and international experts.   One aim of the conference is to discuss  guidelines and common and shared strategies at the national and the Europe-wide level. The results of a survey conducted by Turismabile on the perception of accessible tourism by national and international tour operators will be discussed.  The conference is free.  For info and reservations:

Turismabile:

segreteria@turismabile.it

Tel: 0039-011.31.98.145

Fax: 0039-011.31.87.656

Per tutti coloro che operano nel turismo accessibile e per coloro che vorrebbero avvicinarsi…appuntamento importante a Torino il 14 giugno.  Turismabile, in collaborazione con la Regione Piemonte, è lieto di invitarvi al convegno internazionale “Turismo Accessibile e Piemonte for All”.  Esperti nazionali ed internazionali affronteranno la tematica da più prospettive. Il primo Libro Bianco sul Turismo Accessibile, le best practice nazionali ed internazionali, i fondi europei 2014-2020, saranno gli spunti da cui prenderanno avvio i lavori, al fine di tracciare linee guida e strategie comuni e condivise sul futuro del turismo accessibile.  L’obiettivo dei lavori è quello di tracciare linee guida e strategie comuni e condivise, anche a livello europeo, sul futuro del turismo, con specifico riferimento al turismo accessibile. Si partirà dal percorso che ha portato il Piemonte a caratterizzarsi come eccellenza nel “turismo per tutti”, considerando anche le Best Practice Nazionali ed Europee.   A partire dai risultati dell’indagine realizzata da Turismabile “Turismo accessibile e Piemonte for All. Indagine sulla percezione dei Tour Operator Nazionali ed Internazionali”, si focalizzerà l’attenzione su quanto il “turismo per tutti” è conosciuto, considerato e messo in atto dagli operatori del comparto turistico, fornendo una lettura sulle potenzialità del mercato tra punti di forza e criticità.

Non perdete l’occasione!

Spain’s State Society for Innovation Management and Tourism Technologies (SEGITTUR) of the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Tourism, and Fundacion ONCE (Spain’s largest disabilities NGO) have signed an agreement under which the two will collaborate on the implementation of initiatives aimed at the internationalization of accessible tourism. Their goal is to bring tourism to the 200 million people in Europe who currently miss out, i.e., people with disabilities and those who would travel with them. SEGITTUR President Antonio Lopez de Avila, and the CEO of ONCE Foundation, José Luis Martínez Donoso stressed that  investing in accessible tourism creates a point of difference that will bring competitive advantage.

“Accessibility is good for everyone said the president of SEGITTUR after signing the agreement. “You have to turn it into a competitive advantage.”  For his part, Martinez Donoso referred to the need to build accessible tourism. He said that accessible tourism will to not only appeal to the 4 million people with disabilities in Spain but also to the 40 million in Europe.  In his opinion, “Spain could attract 20 million tourists by ensuring accessibility.”

ONCE and SEGITTUR are to cooperate in designing plans for Accessible Tourism development, advising governments in drafting legislation and standards specific to accessibility, and will provide technical assistance in the development of infrastructure projects and tourism facilities.   They will also work on designing training plans for operators involved in accessible tourism, guides conducting accessible tours, accessibility validation of tourism products, and the design and development of accessible web pages.   In addition, another development included in the agreement relates to the implementation of technologies for accessible tourism, development of accessible applications for smartphones, and the conducting of audits of accessibility.

For SEGITTUR’s president, this agreement will help tourist destinations achieve an optimal level of accessibility and thus visitation, and is an essential element in the development of Intelligent Tourist Destinations. Lopez de Avila stressed that accessible tourism brings advantages and benefits as it is a factor of social inclusion; it is important legally since tourism is a right; and it is important economically since this is a market segment of 200 million people in Europe alone.

Source: In Spanish here. (Please forgive any translation mistakes, above!)

Growing demand for accessible hotel services for individuals with disabilities and the elderly means that offering equal services to all guests is a focal point for hotel managers who want to maximize their overall service portfolio.  A number of hotels around the world offer accessible services, but there is no global “standard” being used to provide a uniform and objective measure of how accessible each hotel is and to whom.  As a result, the information available to people with accessibility needs is incomplete and not reliable enough to ensure that they can enjoy their accommodation and stay.  ACCESSIBILITY PASS classifies hotels’ accessibility level based on their infrastructure, services offered and personnel skills, providing a universal scheme that takes into account currently existing national standards (ENAT).

ACCESSIBILITY PASS includes information for clients with motor, visual, hearing or cognitive disabilities and is a global hotel certification scheme that classifies hotels’ accessibility level based on their infrastructure, services offered and personnel skills.  As such it ensures that a hotel is offering the same service quality to individuals with a disability as to any other client.  It is applicable to any Hotel class/type and to Conference Centers.  Hotels & Conference Centers fulfilling the ACCESSIBILITY PASS requirements get a certificate featuring their accessibility level appropriate to each disability group.  The access labels gained can be listed in the ACCESSIBILITY PASS Public Registry, which features detailed information on a venue’s accessibility features.

ACCESSIBILITY PASS is operated by PEOPLECERT, which offers globally recognized certifications, such as ITIL®, ISO 20000, ISO 27000 and IASSC Lean Six Sigma in over 20 languages.  It has been endorsed by a number of international organizations.

English Heritage recently updated its 2005 free guide: Easy access to historic landscapes.   English Heritage is comprised of a Commission which establishes overall strategic direction, and an Executive Board.  Most of its funding comes from the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport.   The aim of this guide is to help property owners and managers provide easier access for all their visitors, whatever their age or level of ability. It will also be of value to designers, planners, and others working to open up historic sites to a wider audience.  This revised edition of the guidance promotes an inclusive approach to ensure that every visitor to a historic park, garden or landscape has a meaningful experience, particularly people wirh disabilities.  Contents include a look at why access matters, planning for better access, barriers to access, practical advice and examples on making access a reality.

Last year, English Heritage updated its 2004 free guide: Easy access to historic buildings.  The updated guidelines focus on physical access issues because these often pose the greatest challenges as well as opportunities for historic buildings. Other issues such as lighting, tone, colour contrast and signing are touched upon, while acknowledging the excellent guidance on these aspects of good access design which exists elsewhere. The guidance also focuses on the challenges and constraints posed by buildings whose function is not directly related to their historic status – shops, offices and civic buildings – rather than those preserved and opened to the public purely as historic attractions. Although the guidelines are relevant to both categories of building the latter raise significant issues in relation to interpretation (sometimes referred to as intellectual access), which are largely beyond the scope of the document.  Contents are similar to those in Easy access to historic landscapes.

Source: English Heritage website

Guest Blog: Manuel Calvillo is a psychologist who lives in Andalucia (Spain) He first became interested in Accessible Tourism when started working for FEJIDIF, designing Puedo Viajar and studying the tourism and travel habits and needs of people with disabilities. Currently he is working as teacher-trainer in courses about accessible tourism. His personal blog is la tiranía de la normalidad  Here he discusses the development of aspects of accessible tourism in Spain.

FEJIDIF (Federacion Provincial de Asociaciones des Personas con Discapacidad Fisica y Organica de Jaen, Spain) has been working on accessible tourism since 1999 and Puedo Viajar (I can Travel), created in 2010, is its main project.   Puedo Viajar is a social network site about accessible tourism in Spanish, where entrepreneurs can promote their facilities and tourist services, and where travellers can find travel deals, travel guides, create and share experiences and opinions of their own breaks, and holidays with all the community. Puedo Viajar is created by the opinion, experiences and advice that people leave on it.  People not only can look for information about places, monuments, hotels, cities, routes and their accessibility, they  too can create new experiences or add  new comments, images or videos to previous one created by other people.

Training  for tourism  professionals (both face to face and online) is another of the highlights FEFIDIF is offering. We try to offer the theoretical framework and the skills necessary to create and adapt enjoyable and safe facilities and services for all.  Furthermore, FEJIDIF has edited several studies and papers to give support and advice on accessible tourism, for example,  META  (Specialized Manual on Accessible Tourism) and “Puedo Viajar Study: habits and needs of people with disabilities”.

Finally, it should be noted, as part of Puedo Viajar, the project #OpenSpain, was design by FEJIDIF in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of Spain. #OpenSpain aims to spread information about the tourism and culture of Spain, providing detailed information about accessibility and other characteristics of each location.   Specifically, the main activities that will take place into #OpenSpain campaing will be promote touristic sites and routes, disseminate cultural tourist sites and events, and add value to these places thanks to the their accessibility. It was also intended  that #OpenSpain be a multicultural campaign so all information will be provided in English, French and German. It also aims to promote even more the value and possibilities that community and new technologies offer, so we are creating a mobile app “PuedoViajar” for smartphones and tablets. The new app will be available soon in four different languages: Spanish, English, French and German.  It will to owners and tourists from different countries the possibility of using it to promote theirs business and share their personal experiences when travelling.

FEJIDIF-Puedo Viajar contact details: mail: info@puedoviajar.es Twitter: @PuedoViajar Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/puedoviajar Tel: +34 953 267 566

England is a unique destination and a real powerhouse in global tourism. It represents 84% of the total UK visitor economy, is worth £97 billion, and supports in excess of 2 million jobs.    VisitEngland is the country’s national tourist board. They work in partnership with the industry to develop the visitor experience across England, plan national tourism strategy, grow the value of tourism in England and provide advocacy for the industry and visitors.  Their work is underpinned by robust research and customer insights. Their latest in-depth market intelligence and statistics can be found at www.visitengland.org/insight-statistics

VisitEngland is the guardian of England’s Accessible Tourism Action Plan, part of England’s Strategic Framework for Tourism, which provides direction for the tourism industry.  It provides tourism information for people with physical and sensory needs at www.visitengland.com/accessforall.  It also provides a number of tools and resources to help tourism operators accommodate people with access needs at www.visitengland.org/access.  These include information about the business case for offering accessible tourism, how to produce an Access Statement and accurate and detailed information on facilities and services, improving access, improving customer service and staff awareness, tips and advice on particular access customer needs, and developing accessible destinations.

VisitEngland also includes and access category in its annual excellence awards.  This year, finalists in the Access for All Tourism Awards include The Calvert Trust Exmoor, Devon; Eureka! The National Children’s Museum;  Hoe Grange Holidays, Derbyshire: One Great George Street, Institute of Civil Engineers, Sandcastle Waterpark, Lancashire; and Science Museum, London.

The provision of reliable and accurate information about access to tourism, travel, and hospitality services is essential for any person with a disability planning a trip.  The key words here are reliable and accurate.  Often, tourism business owners or operators think their business is accessible when it is not (for example, see research here).  Because owners/operators do not often know what true access is, they mistakenly tell potential customers with disabilities that they are accessible.  The potential customer is therefore given incorrect information on which to plan a trip.  An example of the dissemination of inaccurate information is that given by the NZ Tourism Guide.  The solution is of course for tourism businesses to be independently assessed by a qualified access assessor (for example, in New Zealand, by Be. Accessible).

Visit Scotland suggests “there’s a largely untapped market out there of 11 million people with a disposable income of £80 billion per year, plus another 124 million people in Europe with a potential spending power of 66 billion Euros.  Out of the 11 million disabled people in the UK, only 2 million take a holiday, the rest say it is “just too difficult”.  Some of this difficulty is due to the dearth of reliable information about access.  Visit England reports that 83% of people who look for access information to plan a trip use destination websites – but only 1 in 3 (39%) find it easy to locate information required.   Three-quarters (74%) of people with access needs say they are more likely to choose a destination that offered the best guidance.

Therefore, a huge (and growing) group of people are prevented from enjoying tourism, travel, and hospitality experiences due to lack of information about accessible services, or the lack of reliability of such information.

The Osgoode Township Museum in Vernon will be closed for a month as it undergoes renovations this spring.   The renovations are part of a one-time capital grant from the city of Ottawa to make the building more accessible.   “We are reconfiguring our washrooms to make them more wheelchair accessible,” said museum curator Robin Cushnie. “Currently they are not accessible, not to the current standards anyway. “  External access and entrances will also be upgraded.  The renovations will cost about $50,000, most of which will be covered by the city, which owns the building. The museum will cover anything over that amount.

Thanks to a new partnership with the New Vision Group, the OpenBritain.net website was relaunched on 19 March 2013, and is set to become the premier accessible tourism website for the UK.  It is linked to VisitEngland, with search facilities for properties with a National Accessible Scheme rating, as well as a wide range of visitor information across the UK provided by partners including DisabledGo.   The OpenBritain concept was launched on 6th July 2010 at The Deck, The National Theatre, London by three ministers who represented the Government Olympic Executive, the Dept of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS,  which covers tourism), and the Dept for Work and Pensions (DWP) which covers disability.  The initiative was then welcomed by the coalition government, with support from Prime Minister David Cameron, John Penrose MP (who was minister for tourism), and Maria Miller MP, then minister for the disabled and now Secretary of State for DCMS. At the time, Miller said:

“The OpenBritain initiative will not only create a national and comprehensive information system which will be extremely valuable to anyone visiting the UK, but will also provide businesses with an additional means of promoting their accessble services and provide an incentive to improve their own accessibility. It is clear that gathering all available information about accessibility relevant to the visitor, under one roof, will make a real difference to the lives of disabled and older people and visitors alike.”

Also giving their support are a host of disability groups, including the National Federation of Shopmobility; tourism and hospitality trade associations like the British Hospitality Association, the Caravan Club, the Camping and Caravanning Club, the Historic Houses Association, the National Trust; and the public sector, including VisitBritain, VisitEngland, VisitScotland and VisitWales.

Information from Tourism for All

The Italian government has released its fist White paper on accessible tourism: “Access is Better” (Accesibile e meglio).  The paper is an initiative promoted by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Public Bid for the Mission of Image of Italy in collaboration with the Committee for the Promotion and Support of Accessible Tourism.  The paper opens with an analysis of the tourism market.   More than a billion people worldwide (15%) live with disabilities (World Health Organization 2011). The paper analyses 360 Italian examples of accessible tourism “projects” throughout Italy (especially Emilia, Romagna, Tuscany, and Lombardy). In Italian.

National tourist board VisitEngland has joined forces with UK charity Action on Hearing Loss to launch Listen Up! – a new guide for tourism businesses. Designed to help businesses become more accessible for customers with hearing loss, the free resource is available online at www.visitengland.org/access.  More than 10 million people in the UK (6% of the population) have some form of hearing loss, and Listen Up! is packed with information, advice and examples of best practice for providing these customers with a warm welcome and an excellent visitor experience. It also highlights key issues for business owners when accommodating deaf or hard of hearing visitors, including:

• Safety – How to put adequate evacuation procedures in place to alert guests with hearing loss in case of an emergency.

• Communication – Advice for staff when speaking to someone with hearing loss, and information on disability awareness and sign language training courses.

• Facilities – Information on equipment that can assist guests with hearing loss (available at www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/visitengland), such as hearing loops and text phones, as well as advice on completing an Access Statement – a written description of a venue’s facilities and services, to inform people with access needs.

The new guide adds to a wealth of free tools and resources VisitEngland has developed with a range of partners to help attractions, accommodation operators and other tourism business across England offer the best possible experience to disabled visitors. The national tourist board has also released a series of short videos highlighting the experiences of deaf guests when staying in hotels in England. The videos are designed to alert business owners to a range of issues affecting deaf guests, from wake up calls to ordering room service. They can be found on the VisitEnglandBiz YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/VisitEnglandBiz .

As well as partnering with VisitEngland to produce Listen Up!, Action on Hearing Loss also recently assisted the national tourist board in offering hearing loop testing to quality assured attractions as an extra part of their annual VAQAS (Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme) assessment.

Ross Calladine, VisitEngland’s Head of Business Support, said: “Visitors who have a health condition or disability – and their companions – spend over £2billion a year in England, so it is vital that we integrate the needs of visitors with physical and sensory access requirements into our everyday service provision. Listen Up! is designed to help tourism businesses become more deaf aware, and attract even more of these loyal and valuable customers, and Action on Hearing Loss is the ideal partner for this project.”

Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Paul Breckell, says: “People with hearing loss are a significant force in the economy, travelling both for business and pleasure. We are delighted to be working with Visit England to publish the Listen Up! guide. It will help tourism businesses improve the accessibility of their services for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, invest in hearing loss support and generate more income.”

For more information contact: Sarah Long, Head of Corporate Communications Tel: 020 7578 1452, Email sarah.long@visitengland.orgwww.visitengland.org Emma White, Corporate Communications Executive Tel 020 7578 1471, Email: emmalucy.white@visitengland.org www.visitengland.org

Source: VisitEngland press release.

The Ministry of Tourism Malta is to implement various initiatives to facilitate accessibility in the tourism sector.  A new website – Accessible Tourism Malta – has been created aimed at providing information, which will be constantly updated, to promote accessible tourism and facilitating exchange mechanisms, especially in the low season.   The website is part of “Accessible Culture For All”, a project co-financed by the EU which aims to raise awareness about social tourism and identify ways how to help the tourism industry to increase competitiveness by targeting new markets. “The concept of social tourism is built around the fact that tourism is an experience that everyone should have access to, without discrimination of age, physical abilities, income, status or social conditions,” Malta’s Minister of Tourism said.

The Minister explained how the Government, along with the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) and stakeholders, is working to strengthen the Maltese tourism product, improve accessibility and promote the Maltese islands.  The MTA, in collaboration with the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities and partners from Finland and Croatia is aiming to develop a culture that facilitates the concept of social tourism and accessibility for the disabled.  Finland will have an active role in the project and will identify the best practices being undertaken in the field of accessible tourism. Finland will share with Malta and Croatia the new market strategies that are currently developing in Finland, and host a workshop on accessibility in Finland. The Ministry for Tourism in Croatia will also host discussions with associations that work on disability matters and with other related stakeholders. They will identify the present gaps and tap opportunities that may be developed to improve the accessibility dimension of the tourism product and the service offer.

A national audit has been carried out by the architectural firm Doric Studio to help identify the gaps between the requirements of people with disabilities and the tourism product on offer in Malta.  The results will help formulate a model to meet the interest of the private sector and generate a handholding process supported by the MTA for establishments prepared to tailor their service for the disabled.

At the recent UN Twelfth Meeting of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics (Madrid, March 2013), the committee discussed the on-going updating of the 2005 United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) recommendations on “Accessible Tourism for All”. The revised Recommendations will be submitted for approval to the upcoming UNWTO General Assembly next August.  Accessibility is a key area of UNWTO’s work in sustainable tourism development.  Committee members also welcomed the production of a “Manual on Developing Universal Accessibility”, a result of UNWTO’s collaboration with the Spanish Fundacion ONCE , the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) and the ACS Foundation, expected to be available later this year.

The World Committee on Tourism Ethics is the impartial body responsible for interpreting, applying and evaluating the provisions of the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (GCET). A subsidiary organ of the UNWTO General Assembly, the Committee reports directly to the Assembly. Members are elected in their personal capacities and not as officials of governments or representatives of their countries.  Adopted in 1999 by the UNWTO General Assembly and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2001, the UNWTO GCET is a set of principles designed to guide the development of tourism in a way that maximizes the socio-economic benefits of the sector, while minimizing any negative impacts.

The European Commission is making accessibility an essential requirement for rail infrastructure across the EU when newly built, upgraded or renewed. This includes improvements in infrastructure (e.g. obstacle-free routes, ticketing, information desks, toilets, visual and spoken information, platform width and height, and boarding aids) and to rail carriages (e.g. doors, toilets, wheelchair spaces, and information).  “Making rail transport more accessible to everyone is at the heart of our strategy for a high-quality, sustainable transport system in Europe”, said Vice-President Siim Kallas, EU Commissioner for transport. Having common rules on accessibility at EU level enhances and facilitates the travel experience across the EU of persons with disabilities and all those whose mobility is reduced, for example by the natural ageing process, temporary impairments due to accidents, or by travelling with children. Accessibility features also improve the overall quality of the transport experience for all passengers.

One in six people in the European Union – around 80 million – have a disability that ranges from mild to severe. Over one third of people aged over 75 have disabilities that restrict them to some extent. These numbers are set to rise as the EU population grows progressively older. Most people with disabilities are all too often prevented from fully participating in society and the economy because of physical or other barriers, as well as discrimination.

The European Commission is also currently preparing proposals for a European Accessibility Act set to come out in 2013, which would address the accessibility of goods and services in the EU.

Pieter Ghijsels, Policy advisor in Accessible Tourism, Tourism Flanders writes in the latest issue of Le Tourisme Social dans le Monde (Social Tourism International 154:7*) about how the Tourism Board of Flanders has as a goal to enable every Flemish citizen to participate in tourism.  In 2001, an accessibility action plan was developed and accessibility has become a standard condition for grants by Tourism Flanders.  In addition, in 2007 Tourism Flanders created a “label”, which describes the level of access at a business and provides information on access in a databank.  “The label was originally only available for holiday accommodation, but will be extended towards tourist information offices and recreational premises”, writes Ghijsels.    The project “The Great War Centenary: accessible to everyone” in the Westhoek region is a pilot project in which the idea of ‘accessible holiday destination’ is manifest. With the experience gained, further work on an Accessible Flanders will be carried out in the other regions.  The project fits perfectly within the strategic goal of Tourism Flanders to improve the international reputation of Flanders as a tourist destination and develop a quality, exciting and sustainable destination for people with disability.

*Social Tourism International is produced by OITS-ISTO, an organisation with the express purpose of promoting access to tourism for all.

According to the Cyprus Tourism Guides Association there are around 50 million disabled people in Europe who would like to go on holiday but face many obstacles.  As reported in the Cyprus Mail, the association released a statement in which it said it had decided to dedicate International Tourist Guide Day to more accessible tourism for people with disabilities.  Due to ageing populations, the Association points out that within the next 20 years, around 80% of people in Europe would be caring for someone with mobility issues, either problems with vision, hearing, and/or other types of disability.  “Millions of people, whether they have mobility problems or are older in age want to travel, to have fun and see new places.  It is a group of tourists who are travelling more and more now so general accessibility must be improved in tourist services”.  The association said people with disabilities could not be attracted to Cyprus unless accessibility was improved in tourist areas. “Every link of the chain must work correctly,” it said. “Airports, hotel welcome areas, buses, cultural sites and entertainment and rest areas all must work together”.

During the celebration of International Tourist Guide Day (Feb 21), the association also pointed out the meaning of accessible tourism.  “It is the right of every person in Cyprus to enjoy and have access to all the archaeological sites, museums and cultural places on the island,” it said. “Cypriot Tour Guides, who have the correct training and knowledge, can offer access to Cypriot Culture and the island’s archaeological treasures.” Lilian Muller, head of the European Network of Accessible Tourism (ENAT) expressed her wish to abolish all of the hurdles that disabled people face. “Accessible tourism is not a small, specialised market,” she said. “There has been a demographic explosion and we will all feel the result of it,” she added. “We must improve access now!” she concluded.

Tourism for All UK (TFA) is a national charity dedicated to standards of world class tourism which are welcoming to all. Jennifer Littman, CE of TFA writes in the latest issue of Social Tourism International* (154: 10) that hosting the Olympics and Paralympics in London in 2012 provided an unparalleled opportunity to change attitudes to disability for the better and to prompt businesses to become more accessible. TFA created a short video with some of the Paralympians visiting London following the Games. It is clear in these that the welcome that they received, helped by the volunteer ‘Games Makers’ made a big difference, reinforcing TFA’s view that training and customer service are the most important ingredients of accessibility, along with reasonable standards of accessible provision. TFA’s concern now is to keep the momentum of change going, and to make the link between ‘world class’ and ‘accessible’ an unbreakable bond.

The UK’s commitment to action against disability discrimination, and promise to deliver a fully accessible Games were key elements in the success of its bid to host the Games. The UK has widely been perceived to have met that challenge, and the UK’s reputation has risen. There will be benefits to tourism for years to come, writes Littman. TFA is supporting new development by Visit England  in which they will run a first-ever marketing campaign promoting accessible destinations. With government funding of £100,000, plus other support, the campaign will be launched on 23 June. The initiative will encourage the wider industry to take the accessible tourism market seriously.