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.
Cresaçor, through the AZORES FOR ALL brand, is pioneer in the promotion of the Social and Inclusive Tourism in the Archipelago of the Azores. As a Tourist Animation Company since 2005 we seek to democratize tourism in the Azores, developing leisure and recreational activities to residents and tourists, with or without special needs.
The main aim of this call is to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the European tourism sector by encouraging the extension of the tourism season, by diversifying the EU tourism product and by enhancing its accessibility.
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.
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.
Being aware of the market potential of people with accessibility needs due to social- demographic trends internationally, the Basque Country is working in order to create a "Tourism for All in Basque Country" tourism offer. Based on an already created accessibility model, this project's objective is to further develop the model including required standards for new services and packages within six itineraries in the Basque Country taking into account the whole value chain and also the quality of the services provided.
Project STRING is a transnational cooperation initiative to be implemented by 12 partners from 6 countries. It aims to create 9 fully accessible itineraries respectively in Italy (Piedmont Regione), Spain (Ávila) and Bulgaria (Sozopol) which will then be developed into comprehensive tourist packages. Such packages will be put on the market, by Tour Operators through Travel Agency, singular or in composable modular box that allow customers to make their preferred combination.
The Access for All project, led by VisitEngland, will develop and promote 7 high quality accessible tourism itineraries. It will do this by:
• supporting tourism businesses through an ‘Access for All Development Process’ to improve information, customer service and facilities for the benefit of people with access needs.
• delivering a mainstream national marketing campaign
It will increase opportunities for people with access needs to take a short break giving them confidence in the accessibility of tourism products and services. Awareness of accessible destinations will be increased improving perceptions of Accessible England and Europe.
ACCESSTOUR is an acronym expressing accessible tourism in a short way. Accessible tourism could be considered disadvantaged in comparison with more traditional mass tourism. In the last years accessible tourism has become synonym of high quality care for persons with special needs and accessible destinations. The project aims at marking out the special qualities of accessibility implemented with effective and user friendly services.
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.
