Accessible Tourism the Tourism without Barriers in Architecture and Tourism Design

International Conference, March 4

Planning In The Era Of

Accessible Tourism the Tourism without Barriers in Architecture and Tourism Design

Eko Nursantya,*

*Email: [email protected] of Architecture, University 17 Agustus 1945 (UNTAG), Semarang

Abstract

There were more than 50 million persons with disabilities in Europe, and more than 600 million around the world. Wheexpanded to include all beneficiaries of accessible tourism, as defined above, the number grows to some 130 million people affected in Europe alone. In addition to the social benefits, the market represents an opportunity for new investment and new service requirements, rarely provided by key players in the tourism sector. Modern society is increasingly aware of the concept of integration of people with disabilities. Issues such as accessibility,design for all and universal design are featured in the When talking to tourism operators, especially in countries where accessibility is not at the forefront of legislation and practice, they are unable to understand the complexity that is inherent to disability and access. Sabout the extra cost they will bear to adapt their facilities. A greater understanding of the accessible tourism market has been promoted through research commissioned where a stakeholder analysis has provided an insight into the c Keywords: ACCESSIBLE TOURISM; TRAVELING; DISABILITIES; UNIVERSAL DESIGN.

1. Introduction

Today, people with disabilities can travel to almost any part in the world and the world wants to be explored. Trips to foreign countries or even continents are more and more offered as "barrierin Europe is aging: by 2050 the number of people aged over 65 will triple that of 2003 and the over5 times more. These figures represent a huge market potentiathat’s good prospects.

Accessible tourism there is realization that several issues emerge immediately. People with access requirements are often frustrated with the lack of facilities that would make travel easier.

* Corresponding author, Eko Nursanty. Tel.: +62-858E-mail address: [email protected].

International Conference, March 4-5, 2013

In The Era Of Uncertainty

Accessible Tourism the Tourism without Barriers in Architecture and Tourism Design

* , Anwara, Loekman Mohamadia

Email: [email protected] Department of Architecture, University 17 Agustus 1945 (UNTAG), Semarang,Indonesia

There were more than 50 million persons with disabilities in Europe, and more than 600 million around the world. Wheexpanded to include all beneficiaries of accessible tourism, as defined above, the number grows to some 130 million people affected in Europe alone. In addition to the social benefits, the market represents an opportunity for new

ce requirements, rarely provided by key players in the tourism sector.

Modern society is increasingly aware of the concept of integration of people with disabilities. Issues such as accessibility,design for all and universal design are featured in the international symposia of bodies.

When talking to tourism operators, especially in countries where accessibility is not at the forefront of legislation and practice, they are unable to understand the complexity that is inherent to disability and access. Sometimes they are worry about the extra cost they will bear to adapt their facilities.

A greater understanding of the accessible tourism market has been promoted through research commissioned where a stakeholder analysis has provided an insight into the complexities of accessible tourism.

ACCESSIBLE TOURISM; TRAVELING; DISABILITIES; UNIVERSAL DESIGN.

Today, people with disabilities can travel to almost any part in the world and the world wants to be countries or even continents are more and more offered as "barrier-free". population

in Europe is aging: by 2050 the number of people aged over 65 will triple that of 2003 and the over5 times more. These figures represent a huge market potential which today remains vastly under-served. Well,

Accessible tourism there is realization that several issues emerge immediately. People with access requirements are often frustrated with the lack of facilities that would make travel planning and traveling

858-7614-2560.

Accessible Tourism the Tourism without Barriers in

There were more than 50 million persons with disabilities in Europe, and more than 600 million around the world. When expanded to include all beneficiaries of accessible tourism, as defined above, the number grows to some 130 million people affected in Europe alone. In addition to the social benefits, the market represents an opportunity for new

Modern society is increasingly aware of the concept of integration of people with disabilities. Issues such as accessibility,

When talking to tourism operators, especially in countries where accessibility is not at the forefront of legislation and ometimes they are worry

A greater understanding of the accessible tourism market has been promoted through research commissioned where a

Today, people with disabilities can travel to almost any part in the world and the world wants to be free". population

in Europe is aging: by 2050 the number of people aged over 65 will triple that of 2003 and the over-80 will be served. Well,

Accessible tourism there is realization that several issues emerge immediately. People with access planning and traveling

2

They are dissatisfied with the public sector for the lack of regulation, control and implementation. They are also critical of the private sector for not understanding their needs as they would for any other consumer group and for being unwilling to invest in facilities that can improve accessibility.

According to ENAT (European Network for Accessible Tourism), the European Network for Accessible Tourism, accessible tourism includes:[1]

• Barrier-free destinations: infrastructure and facilities • Transport: by air, land and sea, suitable for all users • High quality services: delivered by trained staff • Activities, exhibits, attractions: allowing participation in tourism by everyone • Marketing, booking systems, web sites & services: information accessible to all

Accessible tourism is about making it easy for all people to enjoy tourism experiences. Many people have access needs, whether or not related to a physical condition (e.g wheelchair users, visual, hearing impairment, allergies). For example, also older and less mobile people or people with pushchairs have access needs, which can become an insurmountable obstacle when going on holidays.

For those people, travelling to a holiday destination can be a real challenge: for example, finding the information on accessible services, checking luggage on a plane, booking a room with special access needs often proves to be difficult, more costly and time consuming.

Many examples show that by implementing basic adjustments to a facility, providing accurate information, and understanding the needs of disabled people has resulted in an increased number of visitors . Improving the accessibility of tourism services increases their quality and their enjoyment for all tourists.

The general objective of this research is to examine the role of disabled people as consumers in the contexts of inclusion, legislation, and commercial tourism [2]. The research also aims to:

• define the term disability in the context of tourism; • examine the experiences of disabled customers on the tourism stage: • examine and clarify the interrelated attitudes and behavioral patterns between four different groups

involved in service processes within the hotel restaurant setting (management, front-line staff, customers with disabilities and able-bodied customers); and

• an overall objective of the research is to assess and examine the encounters of disabled customers on the tourism stage.

Fig 1. Harris Beach State Park, Brookings, Oregon. Accessible boardwalk created with wheelchair ramps. [24].

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2. Disabled Tourist To Be Accessible Tourism

Access is not just about wheelchairs. Accessibility refers to how easy it is for everybody to approach, enter and use buildings, outdoor areas and other facilities, independently, without the need for special arrangements. Providing information on accessibility and improving access benefits a wide range of people who want to travel, but who may find it difficult.

Tourist facilities compete with each other on quality, price and the provision of services and attractions. Equally, current levels of access to tourist facilities vary considerably. Providing accessible facilities and information provides an additional attraction for customers and gives a competitive advantage. Disabled people represent a large and growing market in the world, for both business and leisure travel.

Research shows that disabled people are loyal customers, often returning to places that provide good accessibility. Other people may also benefit from improved accessibility, for example parents with pushchairs, people with injuries, and tourists with heavy luggage.

The presence of complex inter relationship between a diverse range of stakeholders and industry sectors has led some commentators to pursue a system approach to the study of tourism management [2]. Tourism system theories recognize that all development sectors and support facilities and services are inter related with one another and with the natural environment and society of the area [3].

Fig 2. Mount Koya (Koyasan) center of Shingon Buddhism, Japan. [25].

Fig 3. Disable sign board at Asakusa Kannon Temple is a Buddhist temple located in Asakusa. [26].

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One of the most of commonly cited approaches to tourism system study was proposed by reference [4] who identified that they are composed of five interdependent elements are : at least one tourist; at least one tourist region; at least one transit region; at least one tourist destination and at least a travel and tourism industry that facilitates movement within the system. Within reference [4] model tourist are identified as being influenced by the human, socio cultural, economic, technology, physical, political and legal environments in which they are operating [5]. As accessibility is a social construct, the exact nature of the relationship between the tourist with disability and the rest of tourism system is not constant.

Accessible tourism, like another niche areas of tourism, has been described most commonly through an estimation of the market size [6]. And more lately, the estimation of the economic contribution of the group [7].

In attempting to outline and then operationalise the social change elements of the developing disability studies theory, reference [8] use their collective experiences across welfare, education, employment, built environment, the media, housing, technology, communication, leisure, independent living, organizational politics and others to show a way forward to enable environments, attitudes and society. Others in each of these fields have sought to move forward, empirically measure, challenge dominant institutional constraints and provide strategies for change within each context [9].

3. The Tourism Industry

Ensuring access to travel and tourism opportunities for people living with a disability as well as for the entire population requires knowledge and design structures that are inclusive for all citizens. Tourism for all is often stated target, and existing research emphasizes that people with disabilities are not adequately served by the tourism industry due to existence of variety of barriers [10].

The tourism industry is a complex system of independent providers which aim to serve the consumer. A variety stakeholders are involved which often have conflicting needs, wants and interests in the industry [11]. These are spread alongside the system, ranging from the pre-travel stage via actual travel phase (transit and at the destination) to the after-trip period. Throughout all travel stages, customers have particular information needs that have to be fulfilled in order to deliver tourism products and services [12].

Fig 4. The Okurayama Viewing Point is one of Sapporo's most famous sightseeing spots. [27].

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Reference [13] investigates the relative importance of accessibility features for mobility impaired travelers in tourist attraction settings in Israel and compares those to non disabled counterparts. Findings include that among seven accessibility attributes (staircase, elevators are identified as the most critical access issue. However with more travel experience, the relative importance of these factors changes and more weight is given to paths, parking and staircase. While able bodied tourists can make a tradeoff between different features of a site, travelers with a disability are unable to make these tradeoffs, especially in the case when attributes support accessibility.

4. Tourist Experience Of People With Disabilities

Leisure, tourism and disability studies are interdisciplinary, each with their own particular theoretical foundations. Even though all three fields were an integral part of this multidisciplinary research project that involved a highly experiential approach, the two basic theoretical frame works used were both related to how life stories are experienced and told.

Reference [14] Paul Ricoeur's (1984) treatise on life and narrative helps elucidate the process by which people experience and recount their lives and stories. According to reference [14] Ricour (1984), once events and human action or activities in a person's life are shaped or configured into a comprehensible plot or narrative, the person is then able to refigure his or her own world in light of the possibilities offered by experiencing the world of the text [15].

Fig 5. Disable facilities at Minato Mirai 21 is a seaside urban area in central Yokohama whose name means "harbor of the future". [28].

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5. Tourism In The Leisure Of People With

Persons with disabilities often encounter discriminatory practices and impediments which prevent them from exercising their rights and freedoms andtheir societies.

Certainly leisure and tourism are key aspects of many societies in which people with or without disabilities

should have the freedom to participate. Clearly it is not only envthat affect the experience. Attitudes, sense and feelings are intangible factors that nevertheless can have a tangible influence or significant role in the constant interplay between the inner and outer world o

Despite the growing prevalence and variety of mental health problems within contemporary societies there has been surprisingly little exploration of the relationship between emotional well being and tourism experiences.

Travel generated disturbing pleasures that invoked different emotions and it was the embodied nature of such experiences that women identified as vital in moving their sense of self beyond the narrow confines of depression. These travel narratives offer an important insight thimportance of recognizing experiences that invoke connections between mind base of women identities beyond illness categories [15].

The identification of disabled tourists as an research questions that arise are:

• In modern society, is there a growing demand for the provision of tourism services generated by the needs of the disabled?

• Does the infrastructure of the tourism industry (as represented by tourism companies in the research destination area) know or recognize the potential market well enough to effectively serve the disabled as customers?

• Do staff and managers of tourism compcustomers?

• Are disabled customers satisfied with the way

Fig 6. The inner and outer worlds of the disabled tourist [17].

Tourism In The Leisure Of People With Disability

Persons with disabilities often encounter discriminatory practices and impediments which prevent them and make it difficult for them to participate fully in the activities of

Certainly leisure and tourism are key aspects of many societies in which people with or without disabilities Clearly it is not only environmental factors or the person's impairment

that affect the experience. Attitudes, sense and feelings are intangible factors that nevertheless can have a tangible influence or significant role in the constant interplay between the inner and outer world of the tourist.

Despite the growing prevalence and variety of mental health problems within contemporary societies there has been surprisingly little exploration of the relationship between emotional well being and tourism

urbing pleasures that invoked different emotions and it was the embodied nature of such experiences that women identified as vital in moving their sense of self beyond the narrow confines of depression. These travel narratives offer an important insight that much mental health literature ignores the importance of recognizing experiences that invoke connections between mind - body - emotion as the material base of women identities beyond illness categories [15].

The identification of disabled tourists as an unrecognized segment of the tourism market, the crucial

In modern society, is there a growing demand for the provision of tourism services generated by the

Does the infrastructure of the tourism industry (as represented by tourism companies in the research destination area) know or recognize the potential market well enough to effectively serve the

Do staff and managers of tourism companies have particular attitudes towards the disabled as

Are disabled customers satisfied with the way

The inner and outer worlds of the disabled

Persons with disabilities often encounter discriminatory practices and impediments which prevent them difficult for them to participate fully in the activities of

Certainly leisure and tourism are key aspects of many societies in which people with or without disabilities ironmental factors or the person's impairment

that affect the experience. Attitudes, sense and feelings are intangible factors that nevertheless can have a f the tourist.

Despite the growing prevalence and variety of mental health problems within contemporary societies there has been surprisingly little exploration of the relationship between emotional well being and tourism

urbing pleasures that invoked different emotions and it was the embodied nature of such experiences that women identified as vital in moving their sense of self beyond the narrow confines of

at much mental health literature ignores the emotion as the material

unrecognized segment of the tourism market, the crucial

In modern society, is there a growing demand for the provision of tourism services generated by the

Does the infrastructure of the tourism industry (as represented by tourism companies in the research destination area) know or recognize the potential market well enough to effectively serve the

anies have particular attitudes towards the disabled as

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Despite the critical need to understand the disabled as consumers, the general focus has been on satisfying a set of costly rules for a customer group that is often not even desired. Building ramps, giving up prime parking spaces, constructing disability-friendly rooms and installing expensive technology reflect some of the more common requirements that have soured the perceptions of travel-related businesses towards the disabled. This is a serious mistake. While traditional marketing researchers frequently employ segmentation studies on ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic sub-groups, the potential of the disabled market segment in terms of size, access and responsiveness is largely ignored.

Research needs to address the particular problems, needs, behavioral patterns and choice models used by consumers who are physically or emotionally challenged [16].

6. Case Study-Heritage Sites: The Authenticity Of The Location And Eligibility For Disabled Facilities.

The polemic context of this chapter focuses on conservation within heritage settings as well as adopting an inclusive disability centered approach. Reference [18] exploration of authenticity within tourist settings together with reference [19] notions of authenticity form the conservational parameters, in terms of recommending caution to heritage bodies as to potential irreversible infringements on historic settings when considering improving disabled access to sites.

Prior to investigating the ideological clash between disability and conservation, it is important to offer an explanation of what constitutes disability and how it is regarded by various quarters. The term disability encompasses a wide range of impairments including physical or mental conditions with either long-term or short-term effects. It is considered that the term ‘impairment’ is intrinsically linked to the conceptual nature of disability. A concise appreciation of the meaning of impairment is, according to reference [19], not offered in disability legislation, nonetheless the meaning of it is vital to the understanding of all types of disabilities.

The essence of this chapter investigates how a consensus may be reached between conservational ideologies and the emancipation of disabled people. The formulation of a paradigm is therefore proposed whereby the interests of both conservational and inclusive ideologies are carefully considered. The emergence of such a multi-faceted paradigm could be interpreted in pragmatic terms by heritage sites which would ensure any facilities for disabled visitors to heritage sites did not cause negative infringements to the environment or the traditional aesthetics of sites.

This paradigmatic intervention would ensure a compromise is reached and, in the context of disability-orientated changes to heritage sites, would ensure a level of acceptability in terms of associated conflicts

Fig. 1. Display Case Wall Mount. [5].

Fig 7. Accessible yurt in Pinery Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. [29].

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between societal inclusion ideologies and conservation. Current research into this ideological conflict is limited. Existing investigations, however, tend to favour a disability centered approach, thus establishing how current policies and legislation can be applied to traditional settings, without fully appreciating the potential irreversible degrading consequences on the historical aesthetics of heritage environments.

Reference [20] sets out three scenarios by which planners and heritage bodies can determine whether increasing accessibility to historical sites can be conservational acceptable. These three scenarios are as follows:

• Sites where it is practical to make full access improvements. • Sites where full accessibility cannot be achieved and compromise solutions are adopted. • Sites whose fragility make it impossible to provide access without endangering their special values

or the safety of visitors.

A recent reference [21] investigating the attitudes of disabled and able-bodied visitors to heritage sites in the South West of England, primarily aimed to establish a consensus between the access needs of visitors with disabilities along with the non-encroachment of associated alterations into the historical integrity of the sites. The investigation found a distinct willingness, particularly in the context of able-bodied visitor attitudes, as to the adoption of disability-orientated facilities. Despite their unquestionable respect for authenticity, able-bodied visitors were primarily willing to condone alterations, particularly in the knowledge of the disabled visitor experience being significantly enhanced.

Disabled visitors often achieve a very different experience to their able-bodied associates. This experience is frequently a ‘watered down’ experience due to many diversions and inaccessible areas. A classic example being the use of alternate access points for disabled visitors.

Among the theoretical concepts supporting this research was reference [22] largely based around touristic settings, staged authenticity involves ‘front’ and ‘back’ regions, the front region being the focus of tourist gathering and activity and the back region being the part of the setting not permissible to tourists and where the contrived is far less prevalent. In applying reference [22] staged authenticity to heritage settings, disabled

Fig 8. Disable route for whellchair at Asakusa Kannon Temple is a Buddhist temple located in Asakusa [30].

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visitors frequently have to divert from the conventional ‘visitor route’ thus experiencing back regions in order to avoid barriers to access.

Reference [23] theory of ‘performers’ and ‘performances’ can be applied to staged authenticity in that the front regions are based around the performances. It is therefore possible to make further links from his well established approaches to this comparatively modern assessment of disability perception within society. Reference [23] term ‘performance’ refers to activities of an individual occurring under the observation of other people. In his insights into the ‘individual’, as someone who, like those with disabilities, is set apart from other members of society, reference [23] focuses on the stigmatism of such individuals which leads to unwanted attention, acting as a distraction from another focal point.

In the context of heritage settings, disabled visitors have the potential for being such distractions through their conspicuousness, caused by their disability.

7. Conclusion.

• Accessible tourism is a form of tourism that involves collaborative process between stakeholders that enables people with access requirements, including mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive dimension of access, to function independently and with equity and dignity through the delivery of universally designed tourism products, services and environments.

• Travel as a metaphor for the journey of self knowledge also resonates with the metaphor of recovery as a journey of experiencing healing that moves the self beyond the stasis of depression. In this study women draw upon gendered discourse to articulate their recovering identity in relation to travel experiences in three major ways.

• Travel as narrative of escape from gendered expectations of home, travel as a pleasurable form of risk taking and travel as quest for a purposeful identity beyond deficit and depression. However, the specifics of universal design within tourism require quite detailed approaches to understand the way spaces and places are used. An understanding of the nuances of universal approaches for accessible tourism is a necessary precursor to any move to operationalise the concept for the tourism industry.

• Any work that seeks to establish the nuances of universal design in relation to tourism is important because of the conceptual state of the current literature. Yet in related fields such as architecture, universal design is a well developed body of knowledge, which is used to create enabling environments for all types of embodiments (Baucom & Grosch, 1996)

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