Best Practice in Accessible Tourism: Inclusion, Disability, Ageing Population and Tourism
408
Best Practice in Accessible Tourism: Inclusion, Disability, Ageing Population and Tourism
408Hardcover
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781845412531 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Channel View Publications |
| Publication date: | 01/15/2012 |
| Series: | ASPECTS OF TOURISM Series , #53 |
| Pages: | 408 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Dr Simon Darcy is an Associate Professor and Research Director in the School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism at the University of Technology, Sydney. Simon's research and teaching expertise is in sport, tourism and diversity management. He currently holds research grants investigating organisational responses to accessible tourism, sports management practices and protected area visitor management systems.
Ivor Ambrose is the Managing Director and co-founder of ENAT, the European Network for Accessible Tourism. He has worked for over 30 years as a researcher, project manager, development and policy advisor in the fields of building design and evaluation, public housing, accessibility and assistive technologies for disabled and elderly people, accessible tourism and information systems.
Read an Excerpt
Best Practice in Accessible Tourism
Inclusion, Disability, Ageing Population and Tourism
By Dimitrios Buhalis, Simon Darcy, Ivor Ambrose
Multilingual Matters
Copyright © 2012 Dimitrios Buhalis, Simon Darcy, Ivor Ambrose and the authors of individual chaptersAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84541-255-5
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Ivor Ambrose, Simon Darcy and Dimitrios Buhalis
Introduction
Accessible tourism is gaining momentum across many different areas and activities within the tourism sector for both its inherent sensibility as a human rights issue and for its growing recognition as an important contribution to the economics of triple bottom line sustainability amid the general recession. This collection of accessible tourism best practice chapters is the companion volume to the first book, Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues (Buhalis & Darcy, 2011). While Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues sets out to explore and document the current theoretical approaches, foundations and issues in the study of accessible tourism, the focus of this book is on policy and best practice, reflecting the 'state-of -the-art' as expressed in a selection of international study chapters. In the following 24 chapters, the invited authors from around the world relate how the paradigm of accessible tourism is increasingly influencing tourism policies and taking form in a multitude of tourism settings and offers.
This book bears witness to the many faces and perspectives of accessible tourism. It can be portrayed – and can be understood – from a number of perspectives. Typically, innovative developments in tourism take into account the roles and views of different stakeholders, including policy-makers, construction, tourism providers and visitors. In this respect this book is no exception. It is also evident that, increasingly, accessible tourism is not only about providing access to people with disabilities, but is also about creating universally designed, barrier-free environments that can support people who may have temporary disabilities, families with young children and the ever increasing ageing population, as well as creating a safer environment for employees to work (Darcy & Dickson, 2009). As outlined in the conclusion to Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues, universal design and access for all applying the principles of universal design not only enables tourism organizations and destinations to expand their target markets but also to improve the quality of their service offering, leading to greater customer satisfaction, loyalty and expansion of business (Darcy et al., 2011). The principles also enable them to develop flexible, multi-use accessible spaces and also enhance their productivity and operational management, all of which directly influences their profitability.
This book has three defining elements. First, it is truly interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and international, as it synthesises best practice from around the world in a number of areas. The authors come from a variety of tourism-related backgrounds, reflecting our deliberate choice to invite academics, business leaders, public sector officials and leaders of NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) in this emerging field to share their experiences from research and practice. They include educators and researchers (Buhalis, Darcy, Dickson, Edwards, Fujimoto, Huong Le, Neumann, Ravinder, Rhodda, Schweinsberg and others), destination managers, professionals in architecture, marketing and information managers and executives working in tourist boards (Sandøy Tveitan, Daines, Veitch, Papamichail), leaders of NGOs and disability advocacy groups (Ambrose, Müller, Walsh, Van Horn, Voulgaropoulos) and owners of tourism businesses (de Waal, Navarro, Wright). Many of the authors are people with disability themselves and have experienced best and worst practice first hand. This provides an insider's understanding of not only the lived experience but their understanding of the relative inclusiveness of their professional backgrounds. Just as important, whether the authors are people with disabilities or not, we all share a passion to make our environments and the tourism experience more accessible and our societies more inclusive.
Second, the authors work and live in different parts of the world – including Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Greece, Norway, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, USA and the United Kingdom – reflecting the international nature of this research as well as the value and necessity of exchanging experience across national and continental boundaries. Learning from global experience means that, increasingly, standardised processes and legislations can gradually emerge. Not only to make design and implementation easier, but also to improve the development time-scales and reduce costs. The contributions also emphasise – some directly and others indirectly – how specific geographical, cultural, political and sectoral contexts influence the nature of tourism management and the accessible tourism visitor experience.
Third, a wide range of subject matter is addressed in these chapters, including tourism policy development at international level (e.g. Ambrose on the European Union), at national and regional levels (e.g. Ghijsels on Flanders, Belgium and Hernández Galán on Spain); strategic destination management (e.g. Prescott on Vancouver), customer relations (e.g. Veitch on the UK, Navarro et al. on staff training, and Wright on international travellers), architectural design (Papamichail on hotels), marketing, business networking (e.g. Sandøy Tveitan on web-based access information), project-based working methods, public–private partnerships and third sector involvement in accessible tourism (e.g. Walsh et al.). All case studies and chapters present research-based evidence and include references and further reading that will enable readers to research and explore these topics further and discover initiatives in their locality. They represent best practice and provide easily implementable actions that can increase the inclusiveness of facilities and destinations.
Universal Approaches to Accessible Tourism
Of course, this book shares a common perspective with the volume, Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues, where the premise of that book was based on the following definition:
Accessible tourism is a form of tourism that involves collaborative processes between stakeholders that enables people with access requirements, including mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive dimensions of access, to function independently and with equity and dignity through the delivery of universally designed tourism products, services and environments. This definition adopts a whole of life approach where people through their lifespan benefit from accessible tourism provision. These include people with permanent and temporary disabilities, seniors, obese, families with young children and those working in safer and more socially sustainably designed environments (Buhalis & Darcy, 2011, pp. 10–11).
Central to this definition is that accessible tourism is part of collaborative processes that understand the heterogeneity of access requirements informed by different embodiments, where the creation of enabling environments is understood through universal design, as summarised in Figure 1.1 from the concluding chapter that drew together the chapters of the book. This figure represents the conjunction of understanding accessible tourism from the experience of the tourist and the interplay that the tourist has with the disabling or enabling tourism environment. Understanding the tourist with a disability is a complex issue in that the tourist experience must be inclusive of: (1) the type of disability/dimensions of access (mobility, hearing, vision, cognitive and others); (2) the level of support needs of the individual (from the independent traveller with a disability to those with very high support needs); (3) their socio economic circumstances; and (4) the previous tourism experiences. The needs of each individual will vary depending upon their positioning within these four interdependent and overlapping constructs and the particular situation.
The tourism environment encapsulates the systems approach together with the individual journey of the tourist with a disability through the stages of travel. As we learnt through a number of the chapters in Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues (Arola et al., 2011; Foggin, 2011; Fullager, 2011; Pegg & Patterson, 2011; Poria et al., 2011; Small & Darcy, 2011; Veitch & Shaw, 2011; Wang, 2011) what makes the tourist with a disability anxious is that at every stage of the travel process accessibility is an unknown variable that needs to be encountered with a series of constraints and barriers that the non-disabled tourist do not have to negotiate. As we saw with the aforementioned chapters, the resultant experiences of travellers with disability were some worst-case examples of dependency, despair, despondency and indignity. Yet, when there is an enabling tourism environment, visitors' experiences are independent, joyous, dignified and equitable. This book provides examples of how the latter can be achieved for travellers with disabilities, no matter what their disability or level of support needs. It demonstrates that simple solutions and understanding of issues can make a huge difference and open the destination to accessibility requiring markets as well as improve operational efficiency.
Structure of the Book
In order to provide a guide for the reader, this section gives a short introduction to the key themes that are addressed in the five main sections of the book, namely:
(1) Policies and Strategies.
(2) Networks and Partnerships.
(3) The Accessible Tourism Value Chain.
(4) Destination Development.
(5) Accessible Tourism Experiences.
Significantly, all contributions point to the fact that accessible tourism cannot be delivered by means of a 'quick fix' or merely making cosmetic changes to information, a business or a destination. As the definition of accessible tourism used for Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues suggests, it needs to be part of a strategically planned for process, which specifically targets the market segment, and where the tourism industry groups work together to collaboratively-develop accessible tourism products and services. Hence, delivering Accessible Tourism Experiences typically depends on a process that incorporates the four interlinked sets of factors, as shown in Figure 1.2.
Starting with theme one, Policies and Strategies are basic requirements for initiating and implementing actions in support of accessible tourism. This is invariably true, whether they are complex and elaborate national plans formulated in lengthy documents by politicians and bureaucrats, or decisions made among business partners in a destination or even by an owner–manager at a single venue. Only when a policy has been formulated and agreed is it then possible to assign resources to the new priorities, focus the necessary energy and move effectively towards the intended goal.
Successful businesses and destinations depend on building well-functioning Networks and Partnerships (Theme two). These must be composed of stakeholders and providers that are attuned to the needs of customers who require good access and who possess the capacity to collaborate with other market players in delivering products where and when they are needed.
Theme 3 addresses the Accessible Tourism Value Chain which denotes the set of transactions in the supply of the tourism product to visitors. The chain must be developed in each of its 'links', e.g. transport, attractions, accommodation, and there must be reliable connections between all links if the customer is to receive adequate services throughout the journey.
Destination Development (Theme four) focuses on the strategies, structures and activities which destinations must put in place to enable accessible tourism enterprises to thrive – and thus provide an overall experience which is satisfying to the visitor. Accessible hotels, restaurants, museums and other visitor attractions must not be isolated 'oases of accessibility' within otherwise inaccessible landscapes; they must be physically joined up by accessible routes and transport systems. Moreover, destination management organizations must advertise the existence of accessible facilities and attractions through regular marketing channels in order to attract customers.
Theme 5, Accessible Tourism Experiences, highlights the visitor experience as the objective of accessible tourism and the guiding factor in the design and development of tourism products. While mainstream tourism is starting to discover the importance of the individual experience in winning markets and commercial success, it is undoubtedly true that those providers who are successfully addressing the accessible tourism market have a great deal of expertise in understanding their customers' needs and finding ways to satisfy the particular demands of this sophisticated market.
Section 1: Policies and Strategies for Accessible Tourism
Section 1 explores how accessible tourism policies and strategies have been developed and implemented in contexts ranging from the European Union (EU), to USA, Australia and New Zealand.
Ambrose (Chapter 2) presents an analysis of European policies for accessible tourism over the last two decades, indicating that these have largely been made up of fragmented and short-term actions promotingaccess for disabled people to tourism services. European policies in tourism have generally lacked a sustained and purposeful trajectory, partly due to a lack of political authority on the part of the European institutions. With the new competences given to EU institutions by the Lisbon Treaty (European Union, 2009), there is now a possibility of a comprehensive policy approach, including political institutions, stakeholders and representative bodies of consumers, for concerted actions on accessible tourism in Europe. A road map is proposed which calls for integrated actions at EU, National, Regional, local and enterprise/SME levels, leveraging a range of EU funding programmes in order to finance the actions.
In a number of areas of the world accessible tourism is being facilitated by legislation, public sector orientation and a gradual understanding by and collaboration with the private sector. The accessibility of tourist services in Flanders, for example, as described by Ghijsels, (Chapter 3) is an integral and major part of the Flemish policy on tourism, following the principle that travellers with a disability or impairment should have access to the same tourist offers as other visitors. Through dedicated funding programmes the authority has worked over the past decade to provide reliable information on the accessibility of tourist facilities through regular channels. It has introduced an accessibility label based on assessment of venues and has developed programmes for sensitization, training, design, visitor reception, guides and accessible infrastructure.
In Germany, Neumann (Chapter 4) begins from the observation that accessibility is a civil right and its establishment is based on the currently applicable legal provisions and standards. Neumann examines the political, organizational and business implications of this right, citing convincing empirical evidence that the market of accessible tourism must be addressed more firmly and more widely if the group of travellers with mobility or activity limitations is to be properly served by the German travel industry.
In their contribution, Voulgaropoulos, Strati and Fyka (Chapter 5) give their perspective on Greece's accessible tourism development policy, as shown in relation to the subject of Beaches and Bathing for All. Describing the general policy framework, they note that the issue of accessible tourism has been dealt with in a rather piecemeal fashion, and although state initiatives have resulted in some good practices in the past, it has been inconsistent in encompassing accessibility in mainstream strategies for tourist development. There is also a need, they note, for setting standards, monitoring and evaluating accessible tourism policies and practices in order to deliver a better product for tourists with disabilities and reduced mobility.
Laurel Van Horn, (Chapter 6) addressing the US market of travellers with disabilities gives a thorough review of survey and market data. The findings indicate that, despite long-standing legislation and policies in support of Americans with disabilities, there are still many barriers which restrict the frequency of travel and the types of long distance travel which individuals with disabilities are willing to undertake. Despite the very large size of the disability travel market, both in terms of numbers and market value, persons with disabilities report that their travel is very much hampered by physical barriers and poor service levels.
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Excerpted from Best Practice in Accessible Tourism by Dimitrios Buhalis, Simon Darcy, Ivor Ambrose. Copyright © 2012 Dimitrios Buhalis, Simon Darcy, Ivor Ambrose and the authors of individual chapters. Excerpted by permission of Multilingual Matters.
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