The World Health Organization estimates that 15% of the global population, roughly 1 billion people, live with some form of disability. (World Disability Raport) An estimated 450 million people worldwide have a mental disorder. At any given time, approx 10% of adults are experiencing a current mental disorder, and 25% will develop one at some point during their lifetimes. Mental disorders account for 13% of the global burden of disease, and this figure will rise to nearly 15% by 2030. (WHO 2009) European Disability Forum (EDF) says that tourism is an important source of growth for the economy in Europe. However, travelling can still be a real challenge for persons with disabilities. EDF wants to raise awareness of everybody’s right to have equal access to tourism services. (European Disability Forum, http://www.edf-feph.org/) Taking Europe as an example, the accessible tourism market has been estimated at approximately 27% of the total population and 12% of the tourism market. The accessible travel market presents a great opportunity for destinations that are ready to receive these visitors, since they tend to travel more frequently during the low season, usually accompanied or in groups, make more return visits and, in some parts of the world, they spend more than average on their trips. Facilitating travel for people with disabilities is therefore not only a human rights imperative, but also an exceptional business opportunity. Yet, a change in mind-set and in the model of tourism services provision is needed in order to meet this major market demand. Supported by previous information tackles this project problems related with accessibility of tourism for mentally disordered people. Main aim of the project is to promote and support tourism entrepreneurs to value mentally disordered clients and their families as persons and costumers and to help them to design mindful tourism services accessible for mentally disordered people . Main target groups are: 1. organizations which offer tourism services 2. persons with mental disabilities and their families 3. participating higher education institutions Children, families with children and elderly are indirectly target group. Mentally disordered people have certain needs for the content and type of information, for channels and formats which help them to perceive the new information and those needs are comparable in one or another way with children and elderly as well. If project will help to design tourism services accessible for mentally disordered people, then the solutions would be suitable also for another target groups. Objectives: 1.Find out more about the specific needs and behaviors of travelers with mental disorder 2.Assess the current level of accessibility in the tourism sector and identify different approaches to accessibility within the sector 3.Identify obstacles to the introduction and implementation of accessible tourism for mentally disordered people 4.Increase the knowledge about mental disorder and needs of this target group among tourism organisations 5.Develop and implement prototypes of different services of tourism for mentally disordered people 6. Develop study material how to design and implement tourism services for mentally disordered people 7.Develop assessment tool how to evaluate accessibility of tourism service from mental disorder context 8.Make recommendations to relevant stakeholders on how to accelerate the introduction of accessible tourism for mentally disordered people Social inclusion of mentally disordered people is on different level in Europe. In this project will participate partners from Belgium (Thomas More Mechelen-Antwerpen and Museum Dr Guislain) there mentally disordered people are well integrated into the society and partners from Estonia (University of Tartu, Pärnu Museum) and Latvia (University of Latvija, SIA Hotel Zeit) where people with mental disorders have less possibilities and access into the different fields of everyday life. During the project the partners learn from each other and give important input to development of accessible tourism. Main outputs of the project will be situation scan of regional tourism services for people with intellectual disabilities; prototypes of a tourism services for people with mental disorders; implementation roadmap for creation and upscaling the prototypes; assessment tool for the evaluation of accessibility of tourism services for people with mental disorders. The biggest impact of the project is change of mindset in participating organisations and regions that tourism services could be designed accessible for mentally disordered people and this target group is valuable segment in tourism. Another big impact is increased knowledge and eagerness to use developed tools to design tourism services to mentally disordered people by tourism organisations and widened travel opportunities for mentally disordered people and their families.
The project set out with several objectives. Firstly, to obtain an overview regarding the levels of tourism service accessibility in the project partner countries, in terms of the accessibility of tourism-related services such as attractions, museums, accommodation, etc, as well as the specific needs of the target group. Secondly, to offer knowledge, inspiration and recommendations to museums and tourism service providers and organisations on increasing accessibility for people with mental impairment. Thirdly, to highlight the importance of accessibility in the tourism field and in society generally. Lastly, the project initiated innovative, new activities and methods to increase accessibility while turning the project insights into education, training material with self-evaluation and practical guidelines for tourism service providers to become more accessible for people with mental impairment.
This project was initiated from the need to understand and increase museum and other tourism service providers' knowledge about accessibility, especially accessibility issues and possible solutions for people with mental impairment. Different reports and experiences have shown that services are not inclusive or accessible for various societal groups, especially for people with mental impairment. Despite the number of people with disabilities or special needs in society, there are many tourism and public services that are not yet flexible/adaptable, while others have made attempts, but these were not sufficient. This means that for approximately 15% of the population, museums and other tourism services are more challenging to experience or participate in. Therefore, the project's main aim was to educate and support tourism entrepreneurs in valuing visitors with mental impairment and their families as essential persons and customers and to help them design mindful tourism services.