A World Appeal for Action! “Let us empower people with disabilities with the right to act!” The UN Committee on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities issues a call to action, whereby governments, organizations, and citizens alike shall work for a renewed recognition of the principles of equality and fairness for all.
New figures released by VisitEngland from the UK Tourism Survey show that overnight trips made by, or accompanied by, someone with a health condition or impairment contributed almost £1bn to the English domestic visitor economy in the first 6 months of the year, accounting for 5.7 million trips in total.
At the 5th European Forum of Social Tourism, which took place in Malaga Spain, from 15 to 17 October, BITS – the International Bureau of Social Tourism and ENAT – the European Network for Accessible Tourism, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with a view to establishing closer cooperation between the two associations.
The EU funded MEDIATE project aims to establish a common European methodology for measuring accessibility to public transport. In order to create a good practice guide, towns and cities are asked to fill in a questionnaire if they believe that they have examples of good practice. The data they provide will form the basis of the Guide.
Argonautical Park, the first modern sailing centre in the Region of Magnesia, Greece offers accessible accommodation, restaurant, training and education camps for Greek and International visitors of all ages and abilities. The management is now searching for a business partner to continue the development of this unique facility.
ENAT is pleased to present this short video from the ENAT Congress, made by Dirk Janczewski. It features interviews with delegates and short clips from presentations, giving a flavour of the event.
Scandic Hotels is a hotel chain which emphasises good access for all its guests in every hotel. This televised report by AXESS TV, Sweden was broadcast by CNN on 10 October 2009.
Over 30 of the presentations and speeches given at the 2nd ENAT International Congress in Vienna are now available for downloading. They include keynote addresses, workshop reports and case studies from many countries on a variety of subjects.
The Mediate Project aims to establish a common European methodology for measuring accessibility. This will lead to the development of a self-assessment tool that can be used by policy makers to identify areas where upgrading will improve the accessibility of public transport in their city. In this way, Mediate will contribute to the provision of better and easier access for all.
The ETCAATS project has two main aims: 1). to develop an online training course in accessible tourism from existing innovative content selected from previous Swedish work and supplemented with other international training materials; and 2). to develop a ‘Road map’ for an EU certification system for the area of accessible tourism vocational training, in line with the European Qualifications Framework. The target groups for the course include employers and personnel in the tourism industry.
The project aims to create new learning packages for on-line delivery, promote ’The Accessible City’ concept and improve the skills, knowledge and awareness of companies and employees associated with the tourism sector.
