Below are quotes from tourism businesses, professionals and organisations that have made their service more accessible or decided to incorporate inclusive tourism principles in their work following participation in training activities delivered under visits4u.
“We’re going to include some new modules into the training programme of our organisation.”
Stiliana Basmadjieva, Premier Tours LTD, Bulgaria
“Now, we have better understanding of accessible tourism and will be able to better survey environmental conditions and know what to observe.”
Representative of Tourism business sector in Bulgaria
“I am very happy that I was included in the project pilot training course. In the near future I will include information about accessible tourism into our proposals to corporate clients.”
Svetla Tagareva, CONFITO, Bulgaria
“We`re going to renovate an entrance to the hotel taking into account the comments of the audit made within visits4u project.”
Director of Hotel, Reus, Spain
“After the training organised by visits4u team, I realised that we have to pay much more attention to the needs of our clients with functional diversity. The materials of the trainings are very useful for our daily work
Rosa B, owner of a travel agency, Tarragona, Spain
“To attract more clients, shops should do more for being accessible to buyers with special needs and their staff should be trained better to know to work with such clients.”
Alfred P, Shop Owner, Reus, Spain
‘For a small accommodation provider being flexible is ideal – to be able to get new and repeat business from loyal and happy customers is simply perfection!
Everyone can easily reach accessibility accreditation with little investment. We are seeing enquiries increase and expect to get our investment back within five years.’
Diane Howarth, Cottage in the Dales – The Dairy, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
‘Feedback has been incredible, with many guests staying at the cottage without any need for accessibility, but leave us wanting to add accessible elements to their home!
The shower seat has been a complete hit, so many of our guests love the option of sitting in the shower if they want to, so much so that we leave it in there all the time now!’
The Calf Self, Whiltshire, United Kingdom
‘During the last few years, Sandcastle Waterpark has evolved significantly in terms of its levels of Accessibility. By working with local disabled organisations and leaders in Accessible Tourism, we have learnt so much and as a result, been able to develop our attraction in order to ensure that our disabled guests and their families have an enjoyable and memorable visit. Our team has received bespoke training from Industry professionals in order for them to understand the Individual needs of guests with a wide and varied variety of disabilities and additional needs so that they can meet the individual needs of each guest and in term, we hope this gives them skills for life that they can take into other aspects of their professional lives in the future.
Our facilities continue to evolve and develop and as a result, Sandcastle Waterpark has an extremely positive reputation as being an Accessible Attraction and we continue to see an increase in the number of visits from guests with disability. Most recently new online planning tools, a new Quiet/Sensory room in our Waterpark, quiet starts each day and more of our Accessible Family Evenings have been developed as a result of guest feedback and our commitment to Accessible Tourism. Being an Accessible Attraction is always much more important than bottom line profit and we hope similar businesses will see the benefits of investing in their levels of Accessibility in order to provide a quality, fun and memorable day out for their guests.
We are proud of how far we have evolved as an Accessible Attraction in the past few years yet, there is much more that we aim to do in the future as we continue to strive to be one of the World’s leading Visitor Attractions for Accessibility.’
Mark Wilkins, Head of Marketing, Sandcastle Waterpark, Blackpool, United Kingdom
“It is an important effort to raise awareness and awakening for professionals and local stakeholders”
“Tourism for disabled people is a service of substantial well-being”
“Accessibility must be integrated into city and business planning”
Accessible Tourism Seminars participants (October 2016), Rhodes, Greece
