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On 07^th of December 2017, the Latvian organization of people with disabilities and their friends “Apeirons” held an international conference “Accessible Tourism for All” as part of the project “visits4u”, which is co-funded by the COSME programme of the European Union. The conference theme was on tourism accessibility for people with disabilities and developing inclusive tourism for everyone.

Ivars Balodis, Chairman of the Board of organization of people with disabilities and their friends “Apeirons” says: “Tourism and the possibility to travel is important for everyone, but the concept of accessible tourism in Latvia and around the world still requires further work. Of course, tourism places are specific places and ensuring accessibility in those places often requires creativity, imagination and non-standard solutions, but I’m pleased that more and more tourism places in Latvia are becoming accessible to society. It is important to understand that inclusive tourism does not only mean the physical, environmental accessibility by setting up ramps in order for a wheelchair user to move easily. This concept involves a much broader perspective – accessible tourism means acting so that everyone can enjoy the atmosphere of tourist facilities – families with small children, people with visual and hearing, intellectual, physical impairments, as well as seniors. The provision of accessible tourism rather than reconstruction of places, implementation of additional technological solutions requires change of the thinking and attitude of people involved in tourism. Therefore, I was pleased that we had such conference here in Latvia where we had possibility to discuss with tourism organizations, business, tourism makers here in Latvia to make them more open to accessible tourism.”

The conference began with presentations of policies and strategies on accessible tourism, and their implementation, by the European Commission and the Ministry of Economics in Latvia.

The Municipalities of the Latvian towns of Jurmalas and Siguldas, presented what they have done respectively to make Tourism in their regions more accessible for people with disabilities. For example, the municipality in Jurmala earned the third place in the ‘Access City Award 2017’, the European prize that recognises good practice in making cities more accessible. This is a very good example how local authorities can work to make their cities accessible to everyone.

Conference delegates

Subsequently, different tourism businesses presented how they are involved in accessible tourism and what they do to improve the services they provide: Latvia’s States Forest main business is forest management but in their forest they have created tourism attractions and many of these attractions are accessible for people with disabilities in Latvia. The Latvian Museum of Natural History which is located in an inaccessible building and due to its cultural heritage status it is not easy to make changes in the building. However, the Museum have been actively seeking solutions to overcome the physical barriers of the building and improve the visitors’ experience in their premises. As a result, they are developing accessibility of their programmes and finding suitable alternative solutions where possible.    The Latvian green movement, together with Apeirons, has created a Certification of Accessible Natural Places which will be awarded to natural places as a sign that they are accessible.  Apeirons presented their mobile application of accessible places “Mapeirons”, where it is possible to find tourism attraction and other places what are accessible for people with disabilities.

The final session of the conference was dedicated to the Visits4u project, presenting its progress since July 2016 and its outputs: the visits4u itineraries in Modern Art and Culture and in History and Heritage in Latvia (Sigulda and Riga), Spain (Reus and Tarragona) and Greece (Rhodes). Furthermore, the visits4u online tools and resources were presented for the first time: Access Guides, Case Studies and Online Training modules, which are available for free via the project’s website. During the two discussion panels, visits4u partners – the Centre for Accessible Environments (UK), Asklipiades South Regional Social Protection and Solidarity Network (Greece), DomSpain Consulting LTD (Spain), Turin institution for the Deaf (Italy), Municipality of Rhodes (Greece), Nikanor LTD (Bulgaria), Apeirons (Latvia) – talked about their work as part of the project, their learning and ideas for future plans.

visits4u panel on capacity building

Conference delegates had the opportunity to gain international theoretical and practical information on how to make tourism accessible to everyone. During the intervals delegates visited the conference’s exhibition on accessible tourism and environment where they could try different assistive equipment, watch the visits4u videos in Sign Language and get information materials on acessibility and accessible tourism.

visits4u panel on accessible itineraries

Further information about the project:

www.visits4u.eu

 

Conference organiser:

Apeirons

www.apeirons.lv

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of 2016 APEIRONS, the Latvian partner, organised three seminars on tourism accessibility where the main focus was on welcoming visitors by becoming accessible to everyone and shifting the mentality away from “specially made for disabled” to “universal use and access to everyone”. The seminars were attended by accessible tourism users, public authorities, tourism professionals and Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Applying a user-led approach

Each seminar was tailored to delegates so as to make it relevant and achieve its objectives: the first seminar was organised mainly for users of tourism services in order to find out traveling patterns and challenges arising during travels. As participants stated, the main issue was that most of the times attractions and accommodations have no information on accessibility on their websites. Even at times when such information is provided, upon arrival to the site it would turn out not to be as accessible or suitable, which would then make the trip challenging. This demonstrated even further the need to raise awareness locally and provide specific training targeting tourism professionals and the hospitality industry.

The subsequent seminars were therefore delivered primarily to these target groups, where in addition to the overall training the feedback from the user seminar was shared. Although representatives from local authorities agreed that it would be very challenging to convince businesses to invest in better and accessible tourism, the responses from the seminars was positive and participants admitted that it is vital to start raising awareness of accessible tourism

Using modern technology to improve access

APEIRON started to tackle the issue of accessible tourism in 2013 when it started developing the idea of a mobile application with a data base of accessible object and places. The App, called ‘MAPEIRONS’ was launched in summer 2014 following an audit of more than 22.000 objects and places around Latvia and including 1100 in the App. As the data shows 1 in 20 sights are fully or partly accessible. In terms of accessibility Latvia is far from brilliant but it is progressing slowly and steadily. Up to date MAPEIRONS includes more than 22.000 objects and during 2016 it has been downloaded 522 times on Play Store and 324 times on AppStore. This proves that people do like to travel and use modern technologies when planning their trips.

Through visits4u APEIRONS will be able to map more accessible touristic sights and develop itineraries in Riga (the capital) and in Sigulda, one of the most beautiful cities in Latvia. Tourist offerings in Riga will focus on contemporary attractions where the main place of interest is the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, whereas in Sigulda the focus will be on historical heritage where the main attraction is Sigulda Medieval Castle ruins. It is envisaged that MAPEIRONS will be enriched with further data collected during and as part of visits4u.

In November 2016 DomSpain Consulting ltd, the Spanish partner, organised 4 seminars targeting stakeholders of the Tarragona region from different sectors of the tourism industry (tourism offices, hotels, restaurants, shops, etc.), technicians, decision-makers and local associations active in the field of tourism.  The main objectives of the seminars were to raise awareness of the participants on the issues related to inclusive tourism and travel provisions for customers with special needs as well as inspire the tourism stakeholders to take up an active role in the following phases of the visits4u project: mapping provisions for accessible routes in Reus and Tarragona, identifying inclusion challenges and, if possible, making adjustments to ensure participation in travel of tourists with specific access requirements.

The early promotion of the workshops, the time of the working sessions suitable for different groups (one group in the morning, another in the afternoon and two more groups in the evening) and direct contacts with potential participants helped encourage people and organisations of the province to get involved and brought about the diversity of the participants coming from different sectors of the tourism industry and society levels. Prior to the workshops, the majority of the participants declared their interest in the theme and motivation to collaborate with the team in further project activities and approximately 30% had a previous experience in working  with tourists with special needs.

During the sessions, participants came up with the conclusions that tourism stakeholders should be aware of and have an open-minded and non-discriminatory approach to tourists with special needs.  The importance of providing the right and detailed information while describing the level of access provision was also greatly emphasised: for example, a restaurant should not only inform clients about external and internal environment, but also about availability of Braille or large print menu, dietary requirements catered for, etc. This information is crucial as every tourist has different needs and this information will help to understand if this is the right place for him/her to choose or book.

The seminars also served as a platform to elaborate joint reflections on the importance of adequate education and training (formal or informal) for tourism industry workers and assume that only through taking up a responsibility and an active role by all tourism stakeholders is it realistic to create an environment where all tourists, with all their needs, are felt welcome.

If you want to get involved in the project in Tarragona, Spain, you can contact DomSpain directly (details here: www.visits4u.eu/contact-us)