UNESCAP/ CDPF Regional Workshop on Promotion of Barrier-free Tourism
Sanya City, Hainan Island, China
30 October – 1 November 2006

Promotion of Barrier-free Tourism
in Asia and the Pacific [1]

Jean-Louis Vignuda
United Nations Economic and Social Commission
For Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

INTRODUCTION

While tourism has been practiced in some form or other over many centuries, the phenomenon of tourism as an industry is a comparatively recent one. It is generally considered to have had its origins in Britain during the mid 1800s [2]. And since then, the industry has shown continuous expansion, despite regional and temporal setbacks. Nowadays, tourism is often referred to as the world's largest growth industry, with an ever-increasing numbers of people traveling from, to and within more countries and regions of the world. Its impacts are multi-faceted, with social, cultural, political and environmental implications as well as economic ones.

A notable feature of the tourism industry is its focus on market segmentation as a way to provide better services to specific groups of tourists depending on their social, cultural and economic characteristics. New market segments are continually being sought by the industry as older segments mature and evolve. For example, the seniors market or "Grey Tourism" has recently emerged as a major market for tourism. This was brought about through the ageing of the "Baby Boomer" generation who has historically influenced market shifts over the last two decades. Closely linked to the needs of the seniors market are people with disabilities, whose travel needs have been described as barrier-free tourism.

Barrier-free tourism offers a new segmentation opportunity that merges the access requirements of the seniors and disability markets. In this regard, information provision, presentation, promotion and marketing of easy access tourism facilities can provide destination regions with a competitive advantage.

TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Over the past few decades, the tourism industry has experienced phenomenal growth. International tourism arrivals increased from 25.3 million arrivals generating US$2.1 billion in receipts in 1950 to 681 million arrivals generating US$479 billion in 2000. Such a positive trend accentuated even more during the first years of the twenty-first century. In 2005, international tourist arrivals exceeded the 800 million mark with a record of US$682 billion in international tourism receipts. According to the World Tourism and Travel Council, tourism is estimated to contribute around 10 per cent of global GDP and 8 per cent of total employment in 2002.

Tourism is also a rapidly growing industry in the Asian and Pacific region. In spite of all problems and issues that affected the tourism sector in Asia-Pacific region over the last few years such as terrorism, natural disasters, health scars, oil price rises, exchange rate fluctuations and economic and political uncertainties, the region has retained its status of one of the world ‘s fastest growing destinations.

As reported by the World Tourism Organization, the Asia-Pacific region continues to report over the last five years the highest average annual growth rate in terms of international tourist arrival compared to other subregions (see table 1). In 2005, about 19 per cent of world international tourists visited the Asia-Pacific region, which in absolute terms represented an additional of 11 million tourist arrivals over the previous year. The North-eat Asia was the more successful subregion with an average annual growth rate of 8.5 per cent over the period 2000-2005, thanks to the strong performance by the tourism sector in China. This subregion was able to attract some 10.8 per cent of the total world tourists.

Table 1: International tourist arrivals by regions , 2000-2005

Source: UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (Volume 4, No.1 January 2006)

In terms of international tourism receipts, the Asia-Pacific region accounted in 2005 for 20.4 per cent of the world total tourism receipts, with again North-east Asia leading with a share of 10.4 per cent (see table 2). Tourism has, therefore, become a significant source of foreign exchange in Cambodia; China; Hong Kong, China; India; Lao PDR; Malaysia; Macao, China; Maldives; Nepal; Singapore; Thailand; Turkey; Viet Nam and several Pacific island countries. Globalization, the process of which is accelerated by less costly, frequent and faster transportation, information technologies and freer movement of capital, goods and people, will continue to create enormous opportunities for expansion of tourism.

For 2006, Asia-Pacific region is forecasted to exceed the already strong performance of 2005.

Table 2: International tourism receipts by region, 2004-2005

Source: UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (Volume 4, No.2, June 2006)

Although Asia-Pacific destinations do not figure strongly amongst the highest in the top earners and arrivals, they are expected to dominate the global economic growth in the travel and tourism industry over the next few years. According to the "Main Tourism Indicators" prepared by APEC (based on UNWTO data of June 2002), the highest numbers of visitors to the Asia-Pacific region come from within the region followed by visitors from the Americas and Europe.

While strategies and policies to attract more tourists from the main tourist-generating or tourism-spending countries and regions are already in place, further efforts need to be made to develop more targeted strategies. These may involve targeting destinations from which tourists have been so far few in numbers, identifying areas with potential for growth or identifying niche markets with potential as a new source of tourist arrivals. Barrier-free tourism is one such market.

DISABILITY AND TOURISM

Present policies and programmes suffer from a dearth of disability data and inadequacy of existing data. In the majority of the countries and areas of the Asia-Pacific region, it is difficult to estimate the number of people with disabilities. There is a wide variation in the estimated disability rates reported by the developed and developing countries. The variation depends, to a large extent, on the definitions of disability used. The types of disability range from hearing, vision, and mobility impairment to intellectual impairment and psychiatric disorders. For example, Australia's 1993 survey indicated that persons with a disability comprise 18 per cent of its population. New Zealand's first national household survey (1996) yielded a disability rate of 19.1. In 1994, the United States Census Bureau estimated that some 54 million Americans were covered under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) of 1990, constituting nearly 21 per cent of the United States population. In contrast, China's (1987) and Pakistan's (1984-85) sample surveys both indicated a 4.9 per cent disability rate. The 1991 National Sample Survey of India, covering four disabilities -- visual, hearing, speech and locomotor -- yielded a prevalence rate of 1.9 per cent [3]

The share of the older people in the populations of developed countries is already rising dramatically. The same phenomenon is occurring in developing countries. According to United Nations projections, by the year 2025, about 14 per cent of the Asia-Pacific region's total population will be 60 years or older, and the region will be home to 56 per cent of the world's older persons. Among older persons, a significant percentage presents some type of disability. For example, in Western Australia over 50 per cent of people over 60 years of age have a disability [4].

It is interesting to note that countries with the highest rates of disability are those where barrier-free tourism is a recognized market, i.e. North America, parts of Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It is also these countries, which are the greatest source of inbound tourism to the Asia-Pacific region.

In addition to the members of the population who have already been identified as having a disability and/or who are sensing the effect of ageing, there are many who experience some temporarily reduced capacity due to events or situations such as accidents or illness. Any or all of these people may need or simply want to experience some form of tourism. Families with small children my also be included among those who could indeed benefit from barrier-free tourism facilities and opportunities.

It is now widely recognized that people with disabilities, together with carers, friends and relatives, and older persons constitute a large potential consumer market segment for the tourism and hospitality industry, both in terms of numbers and tourism expenses.

ISSUES AND PROBLEMS OF INACCESSIBLE TOURISM

People with disabilities do want to enjoy travel and leisure experience as the rest of the population. While in general participation to tourism activities is not without barriers or constraints, it has been found that these barriers disproportionately affect people with disabilities. Barriers in this context are defined as intrinsic, environmental and communication types. Intrinsic barriers result from an individual's own level of physical, cognitive or psychological functioning. They may be directly related to an individual's specific disability – e.g. fatigue with multiple sclerosis – but they may also be due to a lack of knowledge about tourism opportunities, ineffective social skills, physical and psychological dependency upon caregivers, and skill/challenge incongruities. Environmental barriers are external to the individual with a disability and include attitudinal barriers towards people with disabilities, architectural barriers, ecological barriers, transportation barriers, economic barriers, rules and regulations and barriers of omission. Communication barriers are the result of the reciprocal interaction between the individual and their social environments.

Against this background, it is possible to identify specific constraints and barriers to tourism faced by people with disabilities, which will help to devise remedial measures towards the promotion of a barrier-free tourism.

Underlying social and cultural constraints

The social approach to conceptualizing disability recognizes that it is the disabling environment and hostile social attitudes that create disability rather their underlying impairment. Tourism is part of the wider social relations of each country but also has its own set of industrial responses to disability that must be understood in each country's context. Only then can a strategy to provide barrier-free tourism could be developed.

The economic circumstances facing people with disabilities vary for each country. Data collected in some countries in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe strongly reinforce the economic disadvantage of people with disabilities mainly due to low employment rates, which in turns affect the level of disposable income and thus limit the likelihood of travel opportunities. There is indeed a range of well-documented additional costs associated with having a disability. These include purchase and maintenance of mobility equipment (wheelchairs, orthopedic shoes, etc.), personal care equipment (shower chairs, hoist, etc.), personal care supplies, attendant care, and extra cost because of inaccessible public transport. The higher the person's support needs are, the more complicated their travel arrangements become and the more costly the travel expenditures are. It has been estimated that holidays for people with disabilities can cost between 30 and 200 percent more than holidays for non-disabled. This situation is compounded through the lack of accessible budget accommodation available in many tourism destinations.

Travel planning information

People with disabilities need to undertake a substantially greater amount of pre-planning to undertake travel than the non-disabled. Information is therefore crucial for this group of potential travelers. Unfortunately, poor information dissemination has been identified as a major weakness of tourism for people with disabilities. The use of travel agents by people with disabilities has generally provided unsatisfactory results. Alternatively, in developed countries the Internet has become a primary means to collect travel information for the general public and people with disabilities. This information support needs to be further strengthened.

Government tourism authorities play an important role in coordinating the tourism industry. In addition to coordinating promotion and marketing, they should also extend their function to collection, marketing and dissemination of barrier-free travel information. The collation of information on barrier-free tourism product is one of the easiest ways for national tourism organizations to establish a new market segment campaign.

Transportation barriers

Transport is a key element in facilitating social participation and leisure experience. While transport facilities have improved over the years, public transport options are not fully available for independent use by people with disabilities. Even in developed countries the accessibility of public transport is still a major issue. For example, the lack of accessible public transport has been identified as an inherent weakness of tourism for people with disabilities in Australia.

Transport issues become even more accentuated when an individual has to negotiate the transport system to get to a destination for tourism purposes. This includes prolonged travel time, unknown territories and unfamiliar transport option – train, coach or aeroplane. Once an individual reaches the destination, the day-to-day transport option must then be established. In many instances, these linkages are unavailable then the individual's tourism experience of the destination will be restricted. Many cities in the Asia-Pacific region are lacking of accessible public transport or an accessible parallel one.

Accessible accommodation

For many people with disabilities – especially those with mobility disabilities – accommodation availability is critical. Many accommodation operators do not understand what accessible or barrier-free accommodation really entails. As such they are unable to provide accurate or detailed information about the features of their own rooms, resulting in people with disabilities finding out on arrival that their rooms are not suited to their needs. When this occurs in one's own country it is serious enough but when a similar occurrence happens at an overseas destination it becomes a devastating experience to the traveler with a disability.

Barriers to accommodation occur in relation to the external environment of the accommodation – location, proximity to services, public transport, parking and drop-offs – through the reception, other facilities and services, and the accommodation rooms themselves. Apart from barrier-free accommodation, travelers with mobility disabilities may require additional equipment such as shower seats, a commode and hoist. However, very few accommodations provide this equipment, so people need to either take their own or hire it at their destination. This complicates the tourism experience in terms of additional costs and/or travel planning.

The destination experience

As mentioned previously, the tourism experience involves a multitude of interactions and social relations at the destination. Public transport, the built environment, the streetscape, accommodation, attractions, day trip availability and customer service attitude all play important roles in the tourism experience of people with disabilities.

There are two components central to the barrier-free nature of a tourism destination: disability discrimination legislation and the regulation of the built environment. Unless the regulation of the built environment incorporates barrier-free considerations then the physical environment of transport, the built environment, streetscape and attractions will not be inclusive of travelers with disabilities' physical and sensory requirements. Furthermore, disability discrimination legislation provides an attitudinal environment where the behaviour of service providers incorporates the needs of travelers with disabilities throughout their service provision. Disability cannot be seen as an optional extra but as part of mainstream service provision.

A starting point to improving barrier-free tourism is to understand the nature of the tourism destination and the requirements for a truly enabling environment. Unfortunately, many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have not yet developed building codes and standards for access.

ACTIONS NEEDED TO PROMOTE BARRIER-FREE TOURISM

In 2002, UNESCAP conducted a survey of selected countries in the Asia-Pacific region, which are providing barrier-free tourism products, followed by a study analyzing the findings of the survey [5]. Government responses to the access requirements of people with disabilities vary widely with a range of initiatives. Responses to the broader issue of rehabilitation, housing and general welfare of people with disabilities tend to reflect the economic capacity or the development of the country. For example, the survey identified Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore as the best countries addressing these issues. This is not to suggest that other countries are ignoring the problems. In fact, it reinforces the notion that these countries need assistance in enhancing their understanding of the issues and in promoting good access practices.

Notwithstanding the number of initiatives pursued by countries in the Asia-Pacific region to make tourism barrier-free for people with disabilities, there are a number of remedial actions, which governments and other concerned groups – people with disabilities and their organizations, tourism service providers, tourism training institutions and intergovernmental organizations – may wish to consider to assist their tourism industry to develop and/or expand by taking advantage of a growing barrier-free tourism market. This will help in alleviating the "anxiety”, which accompanies all phases of travel planning and decision making process.

Travel planning and decision making process embraces a number of steps and elements: transport to destination, destination, accommodation, travel experience, additional services and information. Each steps brings with it a problem, which must be solved in order to satisfactorily appease the "anxiety" accompanying this process.

Legislation framework

One key area is the formulation and implementation of related legislation in order to protect the right of persons with disabilities to accessible facilities and environment. Countries should be encouraged to continue developing such legislation as well as introduce new amendments in keeping with changes in the tourism sector, including travel conditions, and the specific situations of different disability groups. While it is essential that legislation needs to be reviewed in a continuous manner, it is imperative that members of the tourism industry be informed of their obligations and operational implications in order to protect not only their interest, but also the interests of the people with disabilities. Of equal importance is the role of the various disability bodies and organizations, which must begin to work closely with the tourism industry to improve existing practices. The organizations are well acquainted with and knowledgeable about various disability issues. They should assist the tourism industry in introducing the necessary changes required under the legislation and to assist in the organization of related staff training programmes.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the physical environment that the traveler has to cope with. It includes air transport and other land and water transport systems available to convey visitors to and within their destination. Regulation over this infrastructure includes the built environment, incorporating streetscape, access to buildings and services and must be inclusive of travelers with physical and sensory requirements. Disability discrimination legislation must be available to ensure that good barrier-free access is mandated. This also provides a positive attitudinal environment as service providers will have to incorporate in their products responses to the needs of travelers with disabilities. Underpinning the legislation would be a set of standards for each component: transport, buildings, accommodation, etc.

Infrastructural issues include also the improvement of transport systems existing within a country. The transport issue is particularly accentuated when a traveler has to negotiate the transport system required to reach the destination and then move within the destination area.

Training programmes and technical assistance to enhance the capabilities of both the governments and the tourism industry in improving the infrastructural environment need to be encouraged.

Accessible accommodation

Availability of barrier-free accommodation is a prerequisite to potential travelers with disabilities. Experience shows that many accommodation operators do not clearly understand what accessible or barrier-free accommodation entails. In addition, there are varying definitions from one country to the other about what constitutes accessible accommodation. A good example is the Japanese experience where baths are the norm while in Australia wheel-in showers are preferred.

Taking into consideration that it is highly unrealistic to presume that the situation would change overnight, owing to cost and time limitations, what is required in the short-term is that the tourism sector strives to achieve a reasonable level of accessibility, which balances disabled users' needs, the constraints of existing conditions and the resource available for such adjustments. In many cases, this relates to the issue of physical access, such as main hotel entrance access, appropriate access ramp, reception counters, disability friendly rooms, access to and location to all public areas. In the long-term, the approach will be to encourage major restructuring and/or refurbishment of hospitality establishments.

Tour operators

Tour operators can contribute to the development of a barrier-free tourism industry by providing a range of services to people with varying needs – physical, sensory, intellectual/learning. Those operators that specialize in services for, and provide tailoring packages to, people with disabilities are instrumental in assisting them with their vacation planning. They are able to provide them with the information regarding the availability of accessible facilities suited to their needs. People with disabilities are more likely to rely on tourism professionals, such as specific travel agents and hotels that best serve their needs. It is therefore imperative that specific barrier-free tourism promotional activities be undertaken by travel agents in close cooperation with other professionals of the tourism industry such as hospitality providers. Disability organizations may also contribute to these promotional efforts by drawing the attention of the tourism industry to the needs and desires of the people with disabilities, especially with regard to flexibility in travel options.

Other services

People with disabilities manage budgets as do the majority of travelers. Disposable income is a factor in travel decision plan but more significant are the additional costs associated when traveling with a disability. Best practice in this respect could be achieved by developing a range of services across the spectrum and will best facilitate barrier-free tourism. Such services could include provision of locally available personal care equipment, locally available attendant care, and appropriate pricing policies encouraging the traveler with disabilities to travel with their carer.

Information

Provision of information on barrier-free tourism is an important element in the decision making process and if appropriately disseminated will lead to increased travel. In developed countries, Internet has become a primary means to collect and disseminate travel information to the general public and people with disabilities. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific region lags behind when it comes to adopting accessible Internet technologies.

Information can be channeled through three main groups: government tourism agencies (national and local), disability and seniors related organizations and individual tourism operators.

Government tourism authorities play an important role in coordinating the development and expansion of the tourism industry. They should extend their coordinating role by collecting, marketing and disseminating information on barrier-free travel. Disability and seniors organizations provide information – amongst other services – to their constituents and members. Such information is often organizationally specific. For example, organizations whose members are wheelchair users will not provide information about facilities catering to people with sight impairment. Individual operators are usually promoting and marketing a product, accommodation and services. They may be instrumental if they could also include in their brochures or other information material any specific information regarding facilities catering to people with disabilities.

One technique available is the development of "Mobility (or access) Map”. These maps can convey a great deal of information in a very compact form. Good "Mobility Maps" contain key pieces of information to the user, describing access in a city streetscape, botanic garden, park, zoo or other attraction like theme park.

Training and education

Education and training on awareness and sensitivity to disability issues is another top priority area in the promotion of accessible tourism. The education sector should be encouraged to include in their training curricula on tourism management and related tourism services courses on "disabled persons' right to access" as well as "customer services to, and relations with people with disabilities”. The close collaboration between the disability organizations and the tourism industry along with the education sector would facilitate the development of required training programmes. It would also help in the publication of training material, such as facilitative guide, student handbook and audio-visual training support, for wider distribution amongst the tourism industry.

CONCLUSION

People with disabilities are becoming a growing group of consumers of travel and leisure-oriented products and services. Like all other market segments this one has its own set of needs, wants and desires. The overriding need is for good information and good barrier-free access to ensure a stimulating tourism experience. The tourism industry should adopt a proactive approach in promoting barrier-free tourism for all so that tourism in the Asian and Pacific region can maintain its competitive edge in a fast changing tourism market with better-informed consumers.

In this context, it is noteworthy to recall that the Asia-Pacific Conference on Tourism for People with Disabilities held in Bali, Indonesia in September 2000 adopted the "Bali Declaration on Barrier-free Tourism for People with Disabilities" which embodied the participants' commitment to the promotion of barrier-free tourism. This Declaration along with the recommendations made at the Conference provides an additional framework for actions. The terms of such a Declaration are still valid today.

Copies of the recommendations and the Bali Declaration are annexed to this paper

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Annex 1

RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE ASIA-PACIFIC

CONFERENCE ON TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY

24-28 September 2000, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

A. Issues

People with disabilities and older persons are growing groups and consumers of tourism services. Families with young children are beginning to travel more. These three groups have similar needs for accessible tourism. However, the majority of tourism service providers in the ESCAP region do not, as yet, understand the economic and social significance of early action to create barrier-free tourism.

The built environment (buildings, streets, parks, public transportation and communication infrastructure) has a major impact on the quality of tourism experience, especially concerning its safety, convenience, efficiency and enjoyment aspects. There is insufficient integration of the planning and development of the built environment and tourism development, both within and across countries.

To create tourism that caters to the full range of consumer needs, there is a need to improve the usability of transportation, accommodation, tourism sites and services, and tour programmes.

B. Promotion of tourism for all

1. Guiding principles

Persons with disabilities have equal right of access to all tourism infrastructure, products and services, including employment opportunities and benefits that the tourism industry can provide. The tourism industry should provide the same choices for all consumers to ensure the full participation of persons with disabilities, and protection of the individual's right to travel with dignity.

Tourism master plans, policies and programmes should incorporate the principle of universal access to tourism infrastructure, products and services. Furthermore, access improvement in tourism benefits many other groups, including older persons and families with young children. The inclusion of universal design in tourism development can create environments, products and services that are useable by a wide spectrum of consumers, irrespective of their experience, knowledge, skills, age, gender, as well as their physical, sensory, communication and cognitive abilities. Thus the spirit of barrier-free tourism means the reduction of all physical and non-physical barriers and dangers so that they do not adversely affect tourism experiences and activities.

With regard to tourism access improvement, it is important for all concerned to take into consideration the rights and needs of diverse user groups, including single disability groups, persons with multiple disabilities, and women and girls with disabilities.

2. Strategic actions

(a) People with disabilities and disabled persons' organizations should:

(1) Develop empowerment programmes focusing on skills for advocacy and negotiation with the tourism industry;

(2) Acquire skills in appraising tourism facilities, programmes and services, and in recommending action to raise their quality, as appropriate;

(3) Learn to conduct access surveys;

(4) Document and share information on the quality of tourism components and user experiences (accommodation, transportation, tourism sites and services, tour programmes, and information and communications systems);

(5) Create local access guides and maps for in-country and foreign visitors;

(6) Serve as resource persons or advisors to training institutions and policy-making bodies concerned with tourism services;

(7) Communicate rights and needs in an effective manner to people encountered in the course of travel, especially those who are unaware and inexperienced concerning disabled persons or discriminatory in their behaviour;

(8) Strengthen craft production and marketing skills among persons with disabilities as an economically viable interface with the tourism industry;

(9) Support disabled persons in acquiring training and employment in the tourism industry.

(b) Government authorities should:

(1) Train immigration officers and ministry of foreign affairs staff concerned with visa applications on disabled person-friendly procedures to be observed in a systematic manner;

(2) Work towards uniform disabled person-friendly immigration procedures at the subregional level;

(3) Improve the accessibility of immigration offices to facilitate travel document application by all tourists, including tourists with disabilities;

(4) Exempt from customs duty all assistive devices required by disabled persons for supporting their activities of daily living, including computers required by blind persons;

(5) Update annually a list of items that should be exempted from customs duty;

(6) Simplify customs clearance procedures for all assistive devices required by disabled persons for supporting their activities of daily living, including computers required by blind persons;

(7) Train customs officers on ways of communicating with disabled persons, especially with deaf and hard of hearing persons.

(c) Tourism service providers should:

(1) Develop in-house programmes to raise awareness, sensitivity and skill levels to provide more appropriate services for persons with disabilities;

(2) Communicate more with disabled persons and their organizations to exchange accurate and reliable information for strengthening tourism services to better meet diverse consumer needs;

(3) Encourage tourism service providers to make their websites accessible for disabled persons, especially blind persons;

(4) Involve disabled persons with the requisite experience and skills in conducting access surveys of premises and to serve as resource persons and advisors in improving tourism services;

(5) Introduce barrier-free tourism into the agendas of their regular meetings;

(6) Introduce accessibility as a criterion in the ranking of hotels and restaurants.

(d) Tourism training institutions should:

(1) Include in training curricula (for all levels) the following contents concerning a client focus that respects the rights and needs of diverse consumer groups, including persons with disabilities: attitude, knowledge and skills development, as well as cross-cultural understanding and appreciation;

(2) Develop and use training modules for sensitizing front-line service staff to relate, in an appropriate manner, with disabled travellers.

(e) Inter-governmental organizations should:

(1) Foster inter-country exchange and networking concerning experiences and practices on endeavours towards barrier-free tourism;

(2) Identify, inter-regionally and within the ESCAP region, best practices in the promotion of barrier-free tourism for wider reference and possible adaptation in the ESCAP region;

(3) Facilitate, in cooperation with subregional organizations, inter-country discussion towards the adoption of uniform disabled person-friendly immigration procedures;

(4) Work towards the lifting of discriminatory and restrictive conditions, such as the requirements of an accompanying person and medical certification, that are imposed on travelers with disabilities;

(5) Explore possible means of granting accreditation to tourism industry establishments that are accessible by disabled persons;

(6) Develop an outline of core contents for training tourism personnel;

(7) Develop training content and capability to strengthen passenger services at transport interchanges (bus, railway, ferry, ship and airplane terminals);

(8) Promote the application of universal design principles to improve the accessibility of tourism sites, especially cultural, heritage and pilgrimage sites.

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Annex 2

BALI DECLARATION ON
BARRIER-FREE TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

We, the participants of the Asia-Pacific Conference on Tourism for People with Disability, held at Bali, Indonesia, from 24 to 27 September 2000:

Recognizing that tourism is a rapidly growing industry in the Asian and Pacific region and that people with disabilities, older persons and families with young children are growing groups of consumers of travel, sports, and other leisure-oriented products and services,

Appreciating that the Community Based Rehabilitation Development and Training Centre (CBRDTC), Solo, Indonesia, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the National Social Welfare Board, Government of Indonesia, and with the co-sponsorship of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Nippon Foundation and the Indonesian Society for the Care of Disabled Children (YPAC), have taken the initiative to organize the above Conference, the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, to discuss major issues relating to accessible tourism for people with disabilities, with a view to identifying key policy and strategy elements for promoting barrier-free tourism,

Recalling that the governments of the Asian and Pacific region have declared the period 1993 to 2002 as the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons,

Further recallingthat the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), at its fifty-sixth session held in Bangkok in June 2000, recognized the need for universal access to transport and tourism facilities for people with disabilities and older persons, and requested the secretariat to support such activities,

Noting that, while barrier-free tourism facilities and services would benefit larger numbers of tourists, including parents with young children and multi-generation family travelers, most tourism service providers in the Asian and Pacific region do not yet recognize the importance of this issue, in the absence of explicit government policies and strategies for promoting barrier-free tourism, as well as a lack of training for tourism personnel on the access rights and needs of tourists with disabilities, and a shortage of tourism programmes that are accessible by people with disabilities,

Noting furtherthat barrier-free tourism is becoming an increasingly important feature in a competitive global tourism market and can serve as an effective tool for enhancing the socio-economic benefits of the tourism sector for the overall development of the countries and areas in the ESCAP region,

1. Affirm our commitment to promoting barrier-free tourism in the Asian and Pacific region;

2. Urge all parties concerned with tourism policy and practice, including the tourism industry, to strengthen Asian and Pacific tourism infrastructure, facilities, services and programmes by enhancing universal access to meet the needs of all tourism consumers, in consonance with changes in social and demographic trends;

3. Request disabled persons and their organizations to develop and implement empowerment programmes focusing on advocacy, facilitation and negotiation so that they may work more effectively with the tourism industry, government authorities and ESCAP to improve existing practices relating to accessibility, as well as to support the tourism industry in introducing universal access principles to ensure tourism for all;

4. Urge governments to include in tourism development plans measures for, and to develop action programmes to promote, barrier-free tourism for people with disabilities, older persons and families with young children;

5. Request governments of the ESCAP region to cooperate with the tourism industry to adopt and implement measures that respect the rights of persons with disabilities to have equal access to tourism facilities, programmes and services;

6. Request governments to strengthen craft production, entrepreneurial and marketing skills among persons with disabilities as an economically viable interface with the tourism industry and as a vehicle for poverty alleviation;

7. Request governments to support and strengthen cooperation with ESCAP, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World Tourism Organization (WTO), UNESCO, International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Pacific-Asia Travel Association (PATA) and other international tourism organizations, to develop regional and inter-regional initiatives on the promotion of barrier-free tourism;

8. Urge ESCAP to extend its technical assistance to governments of the Asian and Pacific region in promoting barrier-free tourism for people with disabilities, older persons and families with young children through, inter alia, the following:

(a) Organization of forums to facilitate inter-country exchange and cooperation on human resources development concerning initiatives to promote tourism for all;

(b) Supporting the development of training materials on disability awareness intourism education and trainingfor use ingovernment and private sector training programmes.

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[1] Presented at the UNESCAP/CDPF Regional Workshop on Accessible Tourism/Promotion of Barrier-free Tourism, 30 October – 1 November 2006, Sanya, Hainan Province, China

[2] Weaver, D. and Opperman, M . (2000) Tourism Management, John Wiley and Australia Pty Ltd, : Milton Park, Queensland

[3] ESCAP, Asia and the Pacific into the Twenty-first Century: Prospects for Social Development (ST/ESCAP/1887). Part II, Chapter VI: Prospects for persons with disabilities – page 241.

[4] Disability Service Commission (1998) accessing new markets: customers with disabilities. West Perth. Western Australia.

[5] ESCAP, Barrier-free Tourism for People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region (ST/ESCAP/2316)

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