Accessible Tourism in Europe
The problems of accessible tourism
In recent years we often meet the term accessible tourism. Although some important steps have been made the last 5 years, much issues remain for Europe to become a destination truly accessible to millions of international tourists, who today still prefer destinations more accessible. There are still serious issues, like the bad attitude of the tourism sector staff, towards people with disabilities, the lack of information and the poor customer service.
While some key issues remain, improvements in accessibility are becoming increasingly important. The population of Europe to a large extent is aging, and at the same time we have a significant decrease of the population due to the failing birth rate. In addition, we expect an increase in life expectancy due to the progress of sciences. The coclusion is that in a decades’ time the median of european citizens’ age will significantly increase.
The barriers.
Despite the great number of people with disabilities, the architectural, cultural and psychological barriers the situation does not seem to differentiate. Besides that, the economic conditions in relation to poor provided services, lead people with disabilities and their partners to avoid choosing european destinations for their holiday. By the improvement of the current conditions, the off-season market will open both for people with disabilities and their partners.
In order to make Europe truly accessible, to promote equal opportunities, but also to get an attractive ROI considering the important touristic flows that this segment can determine, is not only to make destinations accessible by investing in infrastructure, but also to activate a process of education, training and information that will allow tour operators and tourist destinations to better implement, organize and promote their services meeting the needs of millions of tourists with specific needs worldwide.
The above are some of the needs that the European project Erasmus+ KA2, Growmat will try to fulfill.
Τhis article was originally published by p-consulting.gr