The main objective of the project was to address the lack of focus on accessible tourism in education and training. Although up to 10% of the global population may be affected by accessibility issues (UNWTO), this topic remained underrepresented in both tourism research and curricula. The project aimed to fill this gap by developing a comprehensive course curriculum, an innovative teaching methodology, and a study book to support tourism education in several countries. Through these tools, future tourism professionals could gain a holistic understanding of how to effectively serve people with disabilities, while also raising awareness of the legal, ethical, and economic importance of accessibility in tourism. The project also aimed to integrate the real needs and experiences of people with disabilities into the teaching materials. A further objective was sensitisation, raising awareness of society about the travel needs of people with disabilities.
We applied for this project to address the growing demand for accessible tourism, i.e. tourism for people with all kinds of disabilities, driven by an ageing population and the increasing number of people with disabilities—estimated at 10–16% globally. Despite its legal, ethical, and economic importance, accessibility remains underrepresented in tourism education. Most service providers are unaware of the real needs of people with disabilities, which go far beyond ramps or reserved parking spaces. (And also, of the significant business potential that accessible tourism means for them.) There is a lack of comprehensive training materials and university-level courses addressing these issues, which is shown e.g. by the fact that there is only one Hungarian higher education institution to offer a course on accessible tourism in its training programme. Our previous experience in the PeerAct project showed the need for a deeper and broader analysis and highlighted the importance of involving people with disabilities more actively. This project filled those gaps by developing innovative educational content and involving PWD in the development process and its dissemination and addressed unmet educational needs with real-world relevance.