Why is accessibility important in tourism

Based on a definition of remoticity already applied in the literature 5 , a new index is computed. Instead of taking into account the distance between alternative destinations, we consider the accessibility of potential competitors. For example, the remoticity accessibility index for one country in one year is given by the sum of the ratios of the accessibility index to GDP per capita for its potential competitors, in the region, in that year. The advantage of this indicator, given the econometric specification of fixed effects used, is its greater variability both temporally and between countries.

This variability allows for improved estimation of the effect of accessibility on tourist arrivals. Where i indexes the country of interest the country for which the index is calculated , whereas. Another alternative to measuring accessibility is to consider the difference in the accessibility of each country with respect to the average accessibility for the region, for each year.

For example, for one country in one determined year, we first compute the average accessibility index of the region and then we compute the difference between that value and the accessibility index for each country for the same year. The results of this work are exposed in Tables Models a, b and c Table 2 use the accessibility index shown in section 3. The specifications d, e, and f Table 3 use the remoticity accessibility index as a measure of accessibility.

The analysis is reinforced by estimating the models b, c, f, g, h and i, controlling first by capital inflow variables, as in the work of Yang, Lin and Han , and second, by trade volume, as in Roh, Bak and Ming Capital inflow is measured by direct foreign investment FDI , which is used as a proxy for the volume of business carried out by foreigners within each country.

The volume of trade refers to the total sum of goods and services exchanged abroad; that is, the total sum of imports plus exports.

The results seem to reaffirm that the dependent variable reflects the behavior of recreational tourism and not that of business tourism 6. Table 3 Determinants of international tourism Accessibility remoteness index Tourist Inflow d e f Population 1. Table 4 Determinants of international tourism Accessibility versus average accessibility Tourist Inflow g h i Population 1.

Within the presented models, all the estimated coefficients of interest have the expected signs and are significant in explaining tourism demand for the 17 Latin American countries. The only exception can be found with the real exchange rate:. Over the last decade, tourism researchers have held particular interest in identifying, measuring, and systematizing the variables used to determine the competitive position of tourism destinations.

What place do accessibility, technological aspects of smart destinations, innovation, and sustainability, hold in the measuring of competitiveness? In this paper, we focus on one of these dimensions —accessibility— to shed some light on its broader definition, alternative ways to measure it, and its potential relationship with technological aspects of smart cities destinations.

Accessibility in tourism is a challenge that those seeking destination competitiveness must take on. These issues highlight the potential of accessible tourism as a destination competitiveness measure.

However, it is important to keep in mind that this potential should be combined with concrete action to generate the conditions of full accessibility, including investments in infrastructure, human resources training, and promoting awareness on the subject. Accessibility and the universal design of tourism products, services and environments guarantee full use of rights. Recognizing the rights of people with disabilities in its broadest definition is one of the most important goals of contemporary society.

When these rights include the enjoyment of recreational, cultural and recreational activities, two key issues appear: first, that people with disabilities possess the right to tourism and, second, the consequent need to incorporate accessibility as a means of effectively recognizing that right.

In this paper, a broad measure of accessible tourism is computed as an index, allowing for the identification of necessary future policies at the national and regional levels. It sets out to consider the conditions of accessibility in the tourism sector, taking into account, on one hand, the political willingness of a country, and on the other, the issue of tourism accessibility, which includes a destination competitiveness measure. The results of the exercise presented in this paper show that, for our case study of the Latin American countries, the approach used to measure tourism accessibility goes in the right direction: the models showed that accessibility is important in explaining international tourism demand.

Now, the challenge is to consider it as a determinant of competitiveness tourism destination and to learn how to measure it.

Anderson, J. Cheng, I. Chudnovsky, D. Crouch, G. Deardorff, A. Dwyer, L. Fagerberg, J. Fajnzylber, F.

Garelli, S. Gooroochurn, N. Hong, W. Jones, P. Issues and strategies. Kastenholz, E. Lheureux-De-Freitas, J. It encompasses publicly and privately owned tourist locations. The improvements not only benefit those with permanent physical disabilities, but also parents with small children, elderly travellers, people with temporary injuries such as a broken leg, as well as their travel companions.

The definition is inclusive of the mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive dimensions of access Darcy, , p. Darcy, S. Setting a Research Agenda for Accessible Tourism. Cooper, T. Jago Eds. Accessible tourism 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.

Click here for the video or read an article about the founder Mr. Jos Weseman. For more info please contact jos wesemanntravel. Ruta Accesible : An online portal aimed at making travelling possible for all. The website provides information about several countries for travellers with reduced mobility. Only available in Spanish. ReadSpeaker: A software solution that critically enhances the accessibility for all of the web, as it allows visitors to listen to the text of every webpage being read aloud.

Accessible Tourism. Are you an Accessibility Champion? Download full document. World Tourism Day "Tourism for All - promoting universal accessibility". Module I: Definition and Context. San Marino Declaration on Accessible Tourism. External partners' projects and initiatives Gondolas for All : A cutting-edge project to make gondolas accessible to all.

Only available in Spanish ReadSpeaker: A software solution that critically enhances the accessibility for all of the web, as it allows visitors to listen to the text of every webpage being read aloud. A travel agency which is specialized for people who want to visit the same destination for health tourism kinds of health tourism: medical, thermal-spa and tourism for senior-disabled people, Ministry of Health of Turkey T.

However, such factors as having the potential number of tourists, the accessibility of the destination, the development level of the means of transport and political decisions in the country are notably significant.

Within this context, travel agencies have to be specialized by evaluating the present situation and analyse the expectancies of the customers. A satisfied tourist, thus, can recommend the specialized travel agency to individuals with similar travel motivations via word of mouth communication. Destinations are ordered according to the evaluation of the amusement and food spots, hotels, historical and cultural resources and the scenery of the places that are in question Radikal , Of course, the existence of the people who need accessibility should be remembered in that group using that social network site.

Disabled individuals have equal rights like other individuals in physical environment, transportation, information and communication areas World Tourism Organization, Being devoid of this right is against the principle of equality.

The lack of basic equipments that disabled people, who are taking part in the demand side of tourism, need has prevented disabled people from making use of tourism mobility APGEM, World tourism sector has faced with a tourism demand having expectation of better accessibility features in transportation, accommodation, travel, tours, beaches, restaurants and tour buses. Disabled people and their families have desired to prefer touristic products having these features.

For example; in the study that Small et al. While the concept of disabled indicates variety of individuals who have different needs and level of competence towards travel, the accessibility is related to the absence of obstacles to the use of the tourist product. Darcy and Dickson , p. This definition is inclusive of all people including those travelling with children in prams, people with disabilities and seniors. Accessibility indicates that hotel entrance can provide individuals that have mobility limitation with the ease of transition and also there should be a lift accessibility for baby carriages or strollers of the families with children.

Thus, accessible tourism is not only providing wheelchair to individuals who have the mobility limitation but also making embossed signs that signalize the directions for sight disabled people, purveying subtitle system on TV for hearing-impaired people and also forming menus intended for diabetic patients. Physical accessibility is certainly the basic condition of offering accessibility to those who have special needs. The decision of buying holiday of individuals having special needs contains process in tourism sector.

Tourism destinations, hotels, means of transport, searching information for tours and booking or buying tickets require accessibility. In the study, Darcy pointed out that 45 per cent of the participants remarked that the information about accessibility is not true or detailed.

For example, accessibility of information is significant for them because while planning their travel, disabled individuals question in detail more than individuals who are not disabled. Disabled people inquire about their travel by taking their special needs into consideration. On the other hand, it is possible to liken chain rings to the transfer of the tourist having special requirements to the hotel, being welcomed by hotel employees the employees should be well-educated in the matter of welcoming the guests and communicating with them , accommodation, attending tours, shopping during tours souvenirs, food-drinks, etc.

Thus, accessibility is not just related to a ring of chain but it is related to all. In the study, Albayrak specified the ergonomic problems that people with physical disability have at the restaurants in tourism industry, she discovered that disabled individuals do not only face with problems related to physical structure but also they have problems like being ashamed of being helped while eating, being uncomfortable with glances of others, insensible and unhelpful behaviours of employees.

WHO estimates that 15 per cent of the world population has lived with a disability and million people among them have had difficulties in functioning. More or less everybody can face with requirement of accessibility in some stages of life Darcy and Dickson, The number of individuals having special accessibility requirement has been increasing because of aging of population, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, wars, traffic accidents and natural disasters.

Especially with the increase of disabled people rate in developed countries and obtaining more information about the concepts of disabled, accessible tourism has led to perform successful applications.

Many successful applications have been found in this issue in England, the USA and countries that are member to the European Union. On the other hand, as Olympic Games and Paralympics were held in China more importance had been given to form an accessible environment before that date.

Designing of pedestrian ways, buildings, junctions and public toilets for the disabled APGEM, can be given as examples to the changing understanding. In the competition with the theme of Accessible Tourism organized by European Commission in , 19 destinations from European Union countries were declared as European Outstanding Destination EDEN as a result of committed research and evaluation.

In fact Bizjak et al. Performing enough applications and regulations in this area will be able to yield much for the specialized travel agencies. Among all European Union countries, Germany, England and France are fine source markets for accessible tourism both in domestic and European Union.