Tourism

Accessible tourism

According to the UN, there are an estimated 650 million persons living with disabilities in the world. If one includes the members of their families, there are approximately 2 billion persons who are directly affected by disability, representing almost a third of the world’s population. Thus, persons with disabilities represent a significant overlooked development challenge, and ensuring equality of rights and access for these persons will have an enormous impact on the social and economic situation in countries around the world.

(United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - 2008)

Accessible tourism is about making it easy for all people to enjoy tourism experiences.

Many people have access needs, whether or not related to a physical condition (e.g wheelchair users, visual, hearing impairment, allergies). For example, also older and less mobile people or people with pushchairs have access needs, which can become an insurmountable obstacle when going on holidays.

For those people, travelling to a holiday destination can be a real challenge: for example, finding the information on accessible services, checking luggage on a plane, booking a room with special access needs often proves to be difficult, more costly and time consuming.

Making tourism more accessible is a social responsibility, but also a compelling business case to boost the competitiveness of tourism in Europe.

Also, population in Europe is aging: by 2050 the number of people aged over 65 will triple that of 2003 and the over-80 will be 5 times more.
These figures represent a huge market potential which today remains vastly under-served.

Worldwide the number of people with impairments accounts for 600-900 million, representing a significant potential market for Europe.

Many examples show that by implementing basic adjustments to a facility, providing accurate information, and understanding the needs of disabled people has resulted in an increased number of visitors .

Improving the accessibility of tourism services increases their quality and their enjoyment for all tourists.

The European Commission is committed to mainstream accessibility in tourism by:

raising awareness, sensitizing stakeholders and economic operators in the tourism sector
gathering knowledge about demand from travellers with special access needs
identifying options to improve the offer of accessible tourism services