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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Tourism is a citizens’ right. Therefore, all of society has the right to enjoy tourism experiences regardless of individual preferences. The increase in the elderly population (+ 65 years), the high number of people with disabilities (physical, hearing, intellectual, and cognitive) in the world and the growing desire to travel, has accelerated the interest and concern for accessibility, to provide a better experience to these tourists, increasing practices and strategies under the “Accessible and Inclusive Tourism.” However, this tourism segment still has a long way to go, since many barriers persist. The present research aims to analyze accessibility in cultural heritage. For the collection and analysis of information, the qualitative method was selected, exploratory descriptive study, based on semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives of official entities, stakeholders, interpreter-guides, and associations of two medium-sized destinations in Northern Portugal (Braga and Guimarães), with the aim of assessing accessibility in the historical-cultural heritage in medium-sized cities of particular relevance. The city of Guimarães was distinguished as a World Heritage Site, being associated with the birth of Portugal as a nation, bringing an enormous relevance in terms of valorization and empowerment of its historical and cultural heritage by a segment that is increasingly more universal (accessible), having here the concern to evaluate urban policies in terms of accessibility to heritage and tourism destination. According to the typologies framed in Accessible Tourism, it is possible to highlight that, regarding the percentage of tourists with reduced mobility who visit tourism destinations, and, of these, which ones are interested in cultural heritage and what degree of satisfaction they express, the two tourism destinations analyzed do not account for this type of data, since it is a very residual public. Regarding other types of disabilities, some projects have been developed. Considering the definition of strategies to implement in the access to heritage, it is possible to evidence that, despite the improvements made by the destinations, the existing cultural heritage is not completely accessible, existing mainly architectural barriers. The results show that accessibility is being considered as a strategic opportunity for the targeted tourism destinations, however these are still partially accessible, and it is expected that the path to accessibility is a complex process and applicable in the medium to long term.
Description
Keywords
Tourism Accessibility Historical-cultural heritage Braga Guimarães
Citation
Publisher
Springer