Summer is here, and we are all looking forward to travelling and starting our holidays!

For persons with disabilities, however, travelling and exploring can come with many additional barriers such as inaccessible airports or hotels, lack of accessible services or reduced access to support systems. As the tourism sector begins to reopen, following the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the time to raise awareness of the benefits and opportunities of creating a more inclusive tourism sector. 

In the past two months, the EU-funded project In-Tour has held three national events on Accessible Tourism in Italy, Germany and Greece. These events have brought together policymakers, representatives of the market sector, Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers, universities and students. A common key message stood out from the three events: to make tourism more accessible, we need to offer quality education and training on tourism for all. 

For this reason, the In-Tour project has defined two innovative European curricula: one for the Inclusive Tourism Manager and one for the Inclusive Tourism Frontline Staff. A pilot Master course already started in Italy (University of Genova), and others will take place in Germany (Fachhochschule Dresden) and Greece (Hellenic Open University) after summer.

To ensure the Curricula are effective and practical to use, the In-Tour partnership is also collecting feedback from relevant stakeholders in the tourism industry. If you are a VET designer, please fill in this questionnaire by 15 of July. Your input will help us to improve the Inclusive Tourism Frontline Staff Curriculum.

Tourism is still not accessible to all.  So, whether you are a beach, city or mountain person – join our efforts to change it for the better!