Sustainable and accessible tourism in natural areas: a participatory approach

An emerging segment of tourism demand is represented by accessible tourism, i.e. tourism activated in public spaces in the absence of any kind of barrier (architectural, cultural, sensorial, attitudinal, communicational and informational barriers) and, from a business competitiveness point of view,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current issues in tourism 2022-04, Vol.25 (8), p.1307-1324
Main Authors: Sisto, Roberta, Cappelletti, Giulio Mario, Bianchi, Piervito, Sica, Edgardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accessibility
Accessible tourism
Competitiveness
Disabilities
disabled people
focus group
Handicapped accessibility
National parks
participatory approach
People with disabilities
Protected areas
Public spaces
Specifications
stakeholders' involvement
Sustainable tourism
Tourism
Trademarks
Travellers
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Summary:An emerging segment of tourism demand is represented by accessible tourism, i.e. tourism activated in public spaces in the absence of any kind of barrier (architectural, cultural, sensorial, attitudinal, communicational and informational barriers) and, from a business competitiveness point of view, accessibility represents the precondition of any sustainable tourism policy and strategy. In this paper, we concentrate on tourism accessibility for people with disabilities. In particular, to better understand and overcome all obstacles that could impede travellers with special needs from enjoying their tourism experience, in literature is argued that the entire process of defining guidelines to improve tourism accessibility should follow a participatory approach from drafting to implementation. Therefore, to plan services for disabled people in addition to the mandatory requirements, our aim for the present paper is to apply a participatory approach involving stakeholders in the definition of a trademark specification. The experiment was applied to a protected natural area, namely the Gargano National Park (Southern Italy). Results confirm the relevance of adopting a participatory approach to involve stakeholders in the definition of a trademark specification granting disabled tourists with a wider accessibility to protected areas.
ISSN:1368-3500
1747-7603
DOI:10.1080/13683500.2021.1920002