Table of contents

PREAMBLE

Tourism has become an important sector in the world economy. Furthermore, most citizens regard tourism as a basic need. The sector offers unique opportunities to escape from daily life, to relate to other people and to discover new worlds and cultures.

For these reasons, it is important that tourism is accessible to everyone and does not exclude any sector of the population, and it is within this context that tourism policy plays an important role.

In 1989 a group of British experts published a report entitled "Tourism For All", as the conclusions of a Congress organised in the United Kingdom. This report gave a series of recommendations to the Tourism Industry, urging them to take into consideration in the design of their programmes the needs of all people, particularly disadvantaged groups, so that they would be integrated into all tourism policies.

Subsequently, European and American organisations followed the trend set by the United Kingdom, working on similar topics. So, "Tourism for All" soon assumed an international level: "Tourisme pour Tous", "Tourismus für Alle", "Turismo per Tutti" and "Turismo para Todos". The common framework and philosophy of the concept was related to "Quality".

Now that the concept of Tourism for All has been clarified, from now on Tourism for All will be referred to as "Quality Tourism" which, as a result of large scale awareness raising campaigns, has taken into account the needs of all clients insofar as quality is concerned.

The demand for quality and comfort is not contradictory with accessibility indeed the contrary is true. To create a good product, we have to consider the potential market represented by disabled persons so as to design a model composing all the qualities of "Tourism for All". This would not only facilitate the access to all tourism activities, but should also promote a tourism offer with quality, security, comfort and beauty.

Increasing the knowledge of the needs of disabled tourists and providing more attention at local and national level to this issue will contribute to achieving a situation of equal opportunities for these people who have often been denied their right to leisure time because of the lack of accessibility in tourist facilities.

Disabled tourists, regardless of their disability, have the following needs:

• Respect and dignity in the access to services ;
• Specialised information services ;
• Precise and integrated information concerning the services offered ;
• Knowledge of the specific needs of every individual concerning the services to be offered ;
• Adequate transport and information services.
• Removal of barriers ;
• Access to a tourist infrastructure ;
• Harmonization of accessibility standards in every country, at European and international level ;