Chicago, IL, July 31, 2015. The Open Doors Organization (ODO) today released the findings of its 2015 Market Study. The nationwide survey, conducted by Mandala Research, LLC, is a follow-up to ODO’s groundbreaking studies of 2002 and 2005 on the spending trends and market scope of U.S. adult travelers with disabilities.
EU cities are invited to participate in the sixth edition of the Access City Award - The European Prize for making cities more accessible to people with disabilities and older people.
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.
In this video, European tourism professionals, accessibility experts and policymakers talk about the business case for accessible tourism and how destinations and enterprises can win more business by responding to market changes.
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.
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.
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.
