As a result of the activities of the Foundation " Ne spirai / Don’t Stop” the "Cluster for accessible tourism (CAT)” was founded, with the core purpose of promoting business and development of accessible tourism in Bulgaria with the brand "Bulgaria for All".
February marks the end of ELMA’s first year in action and It will also mark the beginning of a new era for ELMA. The future of ELMA looks bright and it is now hoped that the next steps for ELMA will bring local enterprise closer so that together we may move into developing an Accessible Vuokatti… A VUOKATTI FOR ALL!
January has been ELMA’s biggest month yet. Thanks to the efforts of the ELMA team here in Vuokatti, much has been accomplished. This month has seen the First steps into the future Ridderrennet International circuit, Research cooperation between the Snowpolis research units and Paralympic sport, and more importantly the future of Sport and leisure for the disabled to be cradled here in Vuokatti.
London 20 January 2011. The most comprehensive business case for accessible tourism in England launches today. The booklet, entitled ‘At Your Service’, has been created through a joint partnership between the Government’s Accessible Tourism Stakeholder Forum and VisitEngland with the aim of inspiring tourism businesses to improve accessibility for customers in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic Games & Paralympic Games.
Scott Rains has been highly commended in the Best Personal Contribution category at this year’s Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards organised by responsibletravel.com.
The Vice Minister for Trade and Tourism, Pilar Zorrilla, presided over the first seal award event, held in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The Accessible Seal is the result of the Accessibility Programme developed by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Trade and Tourism of the Basque Government which prepares businesses to orient their services to all visitors.
This book of readings by Italian and international authors was prepared in 2010 by the Italian Institute of Tourism for All in order to provide an overview of historical developments, current trends and perspectives on the future of accessible tourism. The text is in Italian and English.
EC Communication (COM2010/352final). Keeping Europe the world's top tourist destination is the objective of a Communication tabled by the European Commission on 30.06.2010. With 370 million international arrivals in 2008, Europe has more than 40% of the global figure - a position which needs to be retained. However the fast changing worldwide economy impacts on the tourism sector with some important changes concerning tourist behaviour and markets of origin.
On 4 November 2009 the Commission launched a two-month online public consultation
called "Public consultation on the preparation of a new EU Disability Strategy 2010-2020". The aim of the consultation was to provide the possibility to different stakeholders from all Member States to give their opinion on the problems that persons with disabilities face in Europe and the ways to solve them. The consultation was also designed to give feedback on priorities and challenges for the future of the European disability policy and the forthcoming strategy 2010-2020.
Chaired by Riga, the EUROCITIES Access to Culture working group was created in March 2007 with the aim of defining, identifying, and comparing culture accessibility issues in cities. This collection of good examples is based on
the results of a questionnaire that was circulated among EUROCITIES members in spring 2010 to identify and promote information exchange and the sharing of good practices regarding access to culture.
The European network of cities, EUROCITIES, has established a Working Group on Barrier-Free Cities for All. The Group is chaired by Ms. Barbara Berninger, City of Berlin.
The ELMA project in Finland is seeking partners for a proposal in response to the European Commission Directorate General Education and Training call for the Life Long Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci.
