INSTO Insights Webinar on Measuring Accessibility at the Destination Level
Thursday, 13 June 2024 | 12:00 – 13:00 pm CEST | Zoom Session
Travelling can be a major challenge for the 16% of the world´s population who experience significant disability. Around 1.3 billion people face major physical, sensory, cognitive and cultural barriers on a daily basis. Accessibility is a human right, but also a business opportunity for the tourism destinations and the entire business ecosystem of the travel value chain.
Travellers with specific access requirements and seniors struggle to find clear, accurate and trustworthy information on the accessibility of the tourism facilities, services and experiences, offered by destinations and service providers. Accessible tourism enables destinations and companies to tap into this expanding market, engage with diverse customer groups and host communities. Destinations can adopt methodologies to size up the market, introduce monitoring and evaluation indicators and encourage feedback systems meant to improve the overall service quality.
The ISO Standard 21902:2021, the San Marino Action Agenda for the Future of Accessible Tourism 2030 and the recently adopted MST, serve as catalysts for the disability inclusion and tourism’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. They encompass strategies to advance in training, undertake specific access improvements in different environments, develop measurement systems and increase awareness in the industry of the benefits of accessible tourism for all.
Measuring and monitoring accessibility, at a global level, is gradually progressing. This is important as for decision- making on future developments and investments in the sphere of accessible tourism, specific qualitative and quantitative data is needed. Such will not only help to better understand the actual needs and behavioural patterns of the travellers with specific access requirements. This data will also make the business case of Tourism for All more evident for the private sector and public investments.
Accessibility is one of the eleven key issue area that INSTO members are committed to monitor at the destination level.
This INSTO webinar will discuss latest concepts and specific developments in the sphere of measuring accessibility. It will feature solutions and lessons learned by selected experts and Members of the UN Tourism International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories (INSTO) in the field of measuring and monitoring accessibility, at the destination level.
Provisional Programme:
Introductory Remarks
Ms. Zoritsa Urosevic, Executive Director, UN Tourism
Dr. Dirk Glaesser, Director, Sustainable Tourism and Resilience, UN Tourism
User-guides to implement International Standards and design Accessible Tourism Indicators
Mr. Igor Stefanovic, Technical Coordinator, Ethics, Culture and Social Responsibility Department, UN Tourism
Overview on Measurement Efforts on Local Accessibility by INSTO Members
Ms. Cordula Wohlmuther, Coordinator, Sustainable Tourism and Resilience, UN Tourism
Presentations by INSTO Members
- Sustainable Tourism Observatory of Málaga, Spain
Mr. Jonathan Gómez Punzón, Head of Málaga Tourism Board, Tourism and City Promotion Department, Málaga City Council - Sustainable Tourism Observatory of South Tyrol, Italy
Mr. Maximilian Walder, Researcher, Eurac Research, Center for Advanced Studies
Invited Guest Speaker:
The ISTO Experience in Accessibility
Ms. Isabel Novoa, President, International Social Tourism Organization (ISTO)
Visit England
Mr. Ross Calladine, Accessibility and Access Ambassador, Tourism, Visit England (video)
