For those with an interest in accessible travel, Elina Michopoulou, Simon Darcy, Dimitrios Buhalis and Ivor Ambrose (ENAT) have edited a special issue of this new journal. We have organised free access to the Special Issue on the Future of Accessible Tourism, available in HTML and PDF formats.
Slides accompanying the Keynote speech given by Ivor Ambrose, Managing Director, ENAT at an event organised by The Executive Council of the Municipality of Dubai on 11-12 October 2015. (Only available to ENAT Members).
This is the Final Report of a wide-ranging study of accessible tourism supply commissioned by the EC Tourism Unit. The study included: visitor and supplier surveys, national legislation review, expert reviews, Web-based research and analysis of accessibility information, transport, infrastructure/facilities and services. Fifteen case studies of accessible tourism destinations were carried out, identifying good practices in business and destination development.
These 15 Case Studies of Accessible Tourism Destinations were commissioned in 2013 by the European Commission as part of the research tender awarded to EWORX S.A., ENAT and VVA, examining the supply side of accessible tourism in Europe.
The project focuses on adult education and business development (business competencies) in the field of accessible tourism for all. The name of the project "Elevator“ represents the effort to raise the quality of human resources and services in tourism to a higher, more competitive level.
Těšín Silesia for All was a small Czech-Polish cross-border project focused on accessible tourism. It was co-financed under the Cross-border Cooperation Operational Programme between Czech Republic and Poland – Microprojects Fund of Euroregion Těšín Silesia - Cieszyn Silesia. The project was successfully completed in June 2015.
The European Union funded project, FastPass, aims to develop and demonstrate a harmonized, modular reference system for European automated border crossing points or "e-gates".
Although historical heritage buildings undoubtedly are an important part of many touristic routes, provision of accessibility to them often is a technically complex process. This is a real challenge - the desire to preserve the visual appearance of historic buildings and hence their value, but at the same time making them accessible to everyone. This European Lifelong Learning "Grundtvig" adult learning project addressed these issues.
This project is a continuation of the project "Accommodation and Catering Accessibility for Disability”(ACAD), finished at the end of 2011, which met with a great interest of disabled people, institutions dealing with equality issues and the hotel and catering sector. In the TEAD project the results of its predecessor will be transferred to other services in tourism sector including tourist information centres, travel agencies, tourist guide organisations, tourist transport, regional promotion offices etc. The results are enriched with examples of good practices and experience of a new partner in the project – Access Sweden.
Following a successful pilot project in 2013 and 2014 with four destinations – Visit Bath, goLeicestershire, NewcastleGateshead and VisitBrighton, the national tourist authority, VisitEngland accessed funding from the European Commission to expand its Access for All initiative.
14 September 2015: VisitEngland, the national tourist board, is today launching a new Access for All campaign, aimed to raise awareness of accessible destinations and businesses in England; informing disabled people of accommodation and visitor attractions when planning a day trip or holiday.
5th June 2015 is the start date for a unique Accessibility Verification Tour, visiting 5 countries over 15 days, as part of the "Europe Without Barriers" project.
