Facilitating tourism experiences for persons with special needs is an essential element of any policy for the development of responsible and accessible tourism. Staff in any touristic venue plays an important role in reducing potential barriers in access or in mitigating unforeseen difficulties. Training in disability awareness and customer care can minimize the barriers encountered by persons with disabilities. It is therefore very important that staff receives adequate and appropriate training on a wide range of competences (including disabled persons’ rights), so as to provide better assistance and services, to monitor and provide the necessary services and explain the operation of facilities designed for customers with disabilities. However, looking at the existing VET tourism courses, only a few actually integrate in their curricula knowledge/skills/competences related with Accessible Needs. Aware of the importance that such topics would have right at training level. Training in disability awareness and costumer care in VET tourism courses is urgently needed, so as tourism professionals are better equipped when dealing with costumers. As previously mentioned, accessible tourism training, such as the one to be offered by TOUR4ALL, can provide VET trainees attending tourism courses, with the necessary knowledge, competences and skills to cope with diverse situations and customer needs. With greater confidence, these future tourism professionals will be able to handle situations which could otherwise be seen as difficult or threatening.TOUR4ALL project aims at responding efficiently to this need by developing a VET module focused on Accessible Tourism, to complement the existing VET offers across European Member-States. As it is the belief of partners, such training module should be based on in-depth knowledge of the needs of Tourists with Disabilities (and thus the needs analysis to be conducted in IO 1 will validate such needs through intensive field and non-field research) and would be developed in a way that has the potential of applicability in any Tourism VET Course in any European country. This functionality offered by TOUR4ALL training module will therefore facilitate its dissemination and replication in VET trainings and projects, as well as provide the adequate skills and competences to the tourism professionals. Additionally, TOUR4ALL also aims at training VET trainers, currently enrolled in Tourism Courses. TOUR4ALL will develop a training module to be included in VET courses in the Tourism sectors (initial and continuous offers) and will be made available through eLearning platform, free of charge. However, the materials will be shaped to be used in traditional classrooms as well. With this module it is expected to provide trainees with proper skills and knowledge to deal with the special requirements and demands of tourists with special access needs and at the same time fulfil the existing professional gap in the tourism market sector. TOUR4ALL aims therefore to respond efficiently to the needs of the tourism sector, by contributing through VET training to increasing its offering of sustainable and higher quality products and services, with greater value for customers, is by making tourism offers and services "accessible for all".TOUR4ALL consortium of nine core partners from six countries has developed over time as a strong multidisciplinary partnership embracing voluntary sector organizations of different types (VET schools, enterprises and representation/diffusion) as well as a Tourism Association and an Association of People with Disabilities. As most partners have worked together across different LLP and Erasmus+ projects, not only do they possess extensive experience in the operational and financial management of EU funded initiatives, but also have the advantage of knowing and trusting each other. Additionally, it is the partner's belief that a strategic cooperation & partnership project should be created among actors dedicated and interested in playing a real role in the development of entrepreneurial methodologies and pedagogies that are especially created for improving the overall level of VET performances.
The project derived from the acknowledgement that although the Tourism Industry was a fast-growing economic activity with a broadly positive impact on economic growth and employment, its potential was not fully harnessed. The two main reasons being: the lack of training in disability awareness and customer care and the poor attention to the economic and social value of Accessible Tourism. It is important to provide safe, convenient and appropriate tourism infrastructures, but it is fundamental to continuously improve the quality of services delivered by endowing tourism professionals with the right set of skills and competencies that will capacitate them to prepare adequate services to all tourists. Currently, EU Member-States lack efficient VET offers concerning the provision of Accessible Tourism skills within existing VET frameworks and commercial training offers. Aware of the importance of such topics at training level, it was critical to upgrade the qualifications and abilities of future tourism professionals, so that they could deliver better services. Regarding the economic and social value of Accessible Tourism, the market growth is continuous and accessibility is an important aspect of the demand of the world’s ageing population and also benefits people with temporarily reduced mobility such as pregnant women, injured people, or families with small children. That is to say, accessibility is an encompassing issue that can affect almost all of us at certain periods of our lives. TOUR4ALL aimed at responding effectively to four main goals: develop a training module on Accessible Tourism to be included in national curricula for Tourism VET courses; ensure that all tourism professionals will be better prepared to deal with accessibility and inclusion as enhancers of the touristic experience; upgrade the qualifications and abilities of future tourism professionals so that they provide better services; allow the trainees currently attending VET courses to acquire the skills to provide adequate services. TOUR4ALL consortium of 9 core partners from 6 countries included: 2 VET schools; 1 VET provider and subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry; 1 NGO operating on the educational sector in collaboration with schools, universities, associations and institutions; 1 professional association for TVET providers in EU countries aiming at enriching the TVET education and training through transnational cooperation; 2 SMEs: one leader in the promotion and management of international projects of Innovation, Training and Research and also Technological Development and one expert in job placement and mobility actions; , 1 Tourism Association and 1 Association of People with Disabilities. The project had 2 Intellectual Outputs composed of a set of activities led by different partners according to their expertise. During IO1 the partners engaged in a desk research on Accessible Tourism in partner countries and then they fine-tuned the needs analysis by means of a field research which included: a collection of 411 responses to a questionnaire from Disabled People Associations, Tourism Associations and SMEs; 30 interviews with VET trainers; 4 focus groups with 27 participants from the tourism sector and from Disabled People Associations; a collection of 18 case studies/good practices on Accessible Tourism initiatives; a benchmarking analysis of existing VET curricula on Accessible Tourism for VET courses. The final activity consisted of creating the structure of the curricula, which included the objectives, contents and learning outcomes of the Module. During IO2 the partners developed an online training platform implemented in the project’s website and the training resources. They have tested and validated of the platform and training materials and produced a final publication on “Promoting Accessible Tourism for all”. The most immediate results attained were 9 training units, 9 training videos, 1 Trainer’s Guidelines in 7 languages which totals 133 available training resources. And also 1 training platform, exercises and extra resources. In the short-term the perceived impacts were: the availability of free online training; the involvement of stakeholders in the project’s activities; the acknowledgement of the importance of staff and VET training; the recognition of the importance of the training materials and platform for coping that gap; the quantity and quality of the participants on the project’s multiplier events and their willingness to disseminate the project and the networking opportunities during the events and activities. In the longer-term, the project has developed a training tool that will provide the trainees and tourism professionals with the right set of skills to deal with the requirements of accessible tourism, thus increasing sustainable and higher quality products and services, with greater value for customers, by making tourism offers and services accessible for all.