Accessible Tourism Promoter for Small and Medium Enterprises Erasmus Project

Project Title

Accessible Tourism Promoter for Small and Medium Enterprises

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Inclusion – equity; Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

In recent years topics like “Accessibility” and “Design for All” have increasingly become a focus of politics, business and public. The concept of accessibility focuses on equal participation of people with physical and mental disabilities in society. The maxim of “Design for All” also underlines that every person should be considered in the implementation of accessibility to have equal opportunities in participating in economic, social, cultural and recreational activities.
Accessible tourism presents new challenges and increased demands in fields of accommodation, restaurants, leisure or wellness.
Many tourism businesses, particularly in Eastern Europe, have superficial knowledge about how their companies have to be organised and arranged to be accessible for all. Here we are not just speaking of “typical” problems which for example exist for wheelchair users or blind people. There also exists a lack of offers for people with allergies or asthma.
In this context it has been shown that barrier-free offers are welcomed and interesting also for people who would not describe themselves as person with disabilities. In other words, a place that is accessible to wheelchair users is very welcomed by older people (with or without a walker) or by families with pushchairs, or by cyclists.
Thus, accessible tourism provides an economic opportunity for tourist regions. Disabled people in particular search very selectively the Internet for their vacations . Furthermore, they usually travel with an escort. Due to demographic changes in Europe, the need for accessible offers will increase considerably.
To promote accessible tourism, the partnership transferred the experience and best practice of the Brandenburg region in Germany into a vocational training: Accessible Tourism Promoter (ATP) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
Based on this training, the ATPs role is the long-term transformation of an enterprise into a barrier-free enterprise offering accessible services. The partnership that implemented the ATP course consisted of three tourist associations, a chamber of commerce, a university offering vocational training in tourism, and a social enterprise working on accessibility issues. This kind of partnership did not only ensure direct and manifold involvement of the target groups, it also ensured a high quality of the curriculum and the training materials that have been developed.
In this context, the partnership produced materials both for a trainer/tutor (pedagogical framwork, curriculum, training materials) and learning materials for participating SMEs. The ATP training itself was undertaken as a test-run in all participating countries. Transforming an enterprise into an accessible enterprise takes time. Therefore, the five-day APT course was supplemented by an accompanied realisation phase. In this phase, the promoters were supported in putting into practice what they had learnt. The realistic approach was to trigger the transformation mentioned above by implementing first small steps and projects in accessible services.
On a regional level, the partnership achieved some impact of the project and its outcomes. Among these were
– Raising awareness of the issue of accessibility in the partner regions
– Awareness raising among SMEs in the tourism sector for accessible tourism, particularly for the economic potential of accessible tourism
– Triggering a long-term transformation of the participating SMEs in the tourism sector towards accessible SMEs
– Establishing an ATP training by the partners in their region

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 240584 Eur

Project Coordinator

agens Arbeitsmarktservice gGmbH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• IHK-Projektgesellschaft mbH
• FLORIDA CENTRE DE FORMACION SOCIEDAD COOPERATIVA
• Bialskopodlaska Lokalna Grupa Dzialania
• Tourismusverband Ruppiner Seenland e.V
• ASOCIATIA PENTRU TURISM BUCOVINA