Boomers, many of whom came of age holding a protest sign, are joining forces with disability and senior groups to add muscle to the cause of increased accessibility in travel. “They don’t intend to let hip replacements and insulin shots stop them from traveling,” says Rains. “Nor will they be pandered to, stigmatized, or written off.”
Accessible tourism has been identified as a relatively untapped tourism market, which has not been capitalised on in South Africa. If you have travelled to South Africa, it would be appreciated if you could complete a questionnaire prepared by the "Urban-Econ" tourism consulting firm.
As part of the CALYPSO Preparatory Action, the European Commission has approved the project presented by Spain, Portugal and Poland to work jointly on preparing a seniors exchange system in the low season. Representatives of the three national administrations will work for eleven months to start up these transnational exchanges of senior tourists in 2012.
The Strategic Framework for Tourism in England 2010 – 2020, launched in spring 2010, identified key drivers for securing our industry’s future. A series of Action Plans outlining shared priorities have now been compiled by cross-industry groups focussing on activities to be implemented in the first three years of the Strategic Framework’s 10 year period. ENAT Members are invited to download the Action Plans and send comments to VisitEngland.
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.
Accessible Travel Netherlands has been developed to raise awareness about the increasing need of information about access for tourists and to provide reliable information for visitors. This need comes especially from the rising numbers of tourist that might face a disability.
11.01.2011. Athens. The president of SEGITTUR, Javier Bustamante, presented the new developments in the Europe Senior Tourism programme for the current 2010-2011 season at a press conference in Athens attended by over 20 general and specialist news media.
In a first for New Zealand, The New Zealand Tourism Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology has created a Research Programme Area in Access Tourism, headed by Sandra Rhodda.
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 study, commissioned by the Government of Ontario, examines the potential economic impact of achieving substantially higher levels of accessibility. In 2010, the Province will introduce five proposed standards through which the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), 2005 will be implemented. These standards are intended to achieve substantially higher levels of acessibility. Our study reviews the economic impact of increased accessibility on individuals, on markets, and on social units. We find that there are opportunities at all three levels to realize non-trivial economic gains through enabling a higher number of Ontarians to participate fully in the province’s economy.
Tourism is dedicated to catering for the preferences of a wide range of customers, but
genuinely inclusive travel, whether for business or for leisure, can be hard to find. Ivor Ambrose is Managing Director of the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT),
a not-for-profit association which promotes accessible tourism. Here he sets out key issues and case studies showing inclusive tourism in action. Meanwhile Sandra Cooper’s description of her stay in an exceptional destination illustrates some of the possibilities available.
The general objective of the project "TOURISM INCLUSIVE - Competencies for Care of People with Disabilities" was to conduct a study that may contribute to the achievement of national policy of inclusion of persons with disabilities, particularly in regard to their access to tourism services by: The identification of specific needs of people with disabilities, on the reception - service - service; The identification of skills, in terms of care and service necessary to meet those needs; The construction of a "package" of training aimed at developing these specific skills.
