Tourism and Accessibility

Teaching Staff: Poulimenou Sofia - Maria
Course Code: TOU220
Course Category: Specific Background
Course Type: Elective
Course Level: Undergraduate
Course Language: Greek
Semester: 8th
ECTS: 5
Total Hours: 4

Teaching Structure:

December 2024

Activity	Semester Workload
Lectures	52
Literature Study and Analysis	73
Course Total (ECTS: 5)	125

Tourism and Accessibility
Size: 189.18 KB :: Type: PDF document

Short Description:

This course examines accessible tourism which enables all people to participate and enjoy tourism experiences on equal terms. For example, the elderly, people with mobility problems or people with hearing or vision problems face huge problems and have to overcome many obstacles when traveling or when organizing their trip. Accessible tourism aims to make possible and/or facilitate access to tourist destinations, products and services for all people, regardless of physical limitations, disabilities or age. Accessibility concerns both public and private tourist sites, facilities and services. From concept to implementation, a trip is typically associated with many factors, such as access to information, distance travel of various kinds, local transport, accommodation, access to archaeological and museum sites, access to shops and venues catering and recreation.

Objectives - Learning Outcomes:

The course aims to familiarize students with the principles, concepts and applications of accessible tourism 
at an international level. The students, through the lectures but also from the live visits to places of cultural
and touristic interest, will be able to understand the different accessibility needs that arise in tourism as well as
the different categories of people with accessibility problems. In addition, students will get to know good practices, 
innovations in the field and will also be able to recognize the business opportunities that arise.

Syllabus:

Week 1: Introduction to Accessible Tourism
Week 2: Understanding disability
Week 3: Accessibility Standards and Regulations
Week 4: Accessible Means of Transport
Week 5: Accessible Accommodations
Week 6: Accessible attractions and destinations
Week 7: Inclusive customer service
Week 8: Accessible Information and Technology
Week 9: Accessible Marketing and Promotion
Week 10: Accessible event planning
Week 11: Accessibility and crisis management
Week 12: The business perspective of accessible tourism
Week 13: Conclusions and the future of accessible tourism

Suggested Bibliography:

1. Buhalis, D., Darcy, S., & Ambrose, I. (Eds.). (2012). Best practice in accessible tourism: Inclusion, disability, ageing population and tourism (Vol. 53). Channel View Publications.

2. Eusebio, C., Teixeira, L., & Carneiro, M. J. (Eds.). (2021). ICT Tools and Applications for Accessible Tourism. IGI Global.

Teaching Methods: