How to support professionals in acquiring competences in the field of accessible tourism for disabled persons?
On 30 June 2017, at Moltivolti, a famous cultural hub in the heart of Palermo, the Multiplier Event entitled “Accessible Tourism for All” was held within the scope of the project Tour4All – Development of curricula on Accessible Tourism for VET Tourism Courses.
The event aimed to present the first results that the project team had developed to the local public.
The project seeks to develop a training module on Accessible Tourism, to be soon available on an online platform, in order to bridge the training gap in the VET sector. Tour4All wants
therefore to create a pan-European platform where all the VET trainers, students and tourism professionals can get more technical know-how, enrich their operative instruments, and
subsequently provide better touristic experiences for all customers.
During the meeting, Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci presented the work conducted in the first phase of the project, including needs analysis; collection of case studies
and good practices benchmarking of existing VET curricula for Accessible Training in participating countries; definition of the Curricula for VET Tourism Courses on Accessible Tourism)
and the relative achievements.
The event was attended by 21 participants and it had the pleasure to welcome the valuable intervention of Annalisa Riggio, founder of Bookingbility, a new platform created to map
receptive structures and facilitate direct bookings of accommodation adapted for disabled people and guests with special needs. The event has been a
good opportunity for stakeholders to introduce and exchange good practices at a local level and to know the needs and interests emerged at the research stage of the project and the
future perspectives in this field.
Finally, good practices on accessible tourism were introduced, by showing the activities that a local association A.S.D. Salvatore Balistreri organizes at local level to improve the accessibility of people with disability to local touristic paths.
The event was concluded with an enjoyable aperitif party with catering offered by CSC Danilo Dolci, during which participants could continue to network and exchange ideas in a
more personal manner.
From the evaluations filled in by the participants, all of them rated that they were “satisfied” and “completely satisfied”: they found the results of the research very useful and also they
were interested in the next steps of the project, asking to participate into the next phase of the piloting. Finally, according to the questionnaires collected during the event, both the
organization of the Multiplier event and the interventions of CSC’s speakers and Ms. Riggio were really appreciated: this has been a chance for all participants involved to exchange their
knowledge and contacts, allowing to improve the collaboration among the organizations which attended the event.
Tour4All is financed by Erasmus+ Programme – Key Action 2: Strategic Partnership|VET.
The project is enriched by the collaboration of a diverse partnership composed by 9 partners:
- CEPROF – Centros Escolares de Ensino Profissional, Lda (Portugal, coordinator);
- INOVA+ Servicos De Consultadoria Em Inovacao Tecnologica S.A. (Portugal);
- IHK – Projektgesellschaft GmbH (Germany);
- European Forum of Technical and Vocational Education and Training – EfVET (Belgium);
- Fondazione M.E.T.A Musei Eventi Turismo Alghero (Italy);
- Stage Within European Programmes, S.L. (Spain);
- Ovar Forma – Ensino e Formação Lda (Portugal);
- The Lithuanian Association of People with Disabilities (Lithuania);
- Centro Per Lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci (Italy).
For further information, please contact Vidjaya Thelen, vidjaya.thelen@danilodolci.org.