Tourism for disabled travellers is a matter that “concerns us all,” in the words of Viajes 2000 CEO Jon Cortina, who spoke at the 2nd International ENAT Congress: Trends and Prospects on Accessible Tourism in Vienna on September 30.
At the conference, tourism and accessibility specialists discussed a wide range of topics relating to new trends, challenges and opportunities in this industry. Moreover, they agreed on the need to support efforts to boost accessible tourism. In his speech, Mr Cortina went over the history of Viajes AcceSIbles, a groundbreaking initiative launched by the travel agency of the ONCE corporation, remarking that both the company’s call centre and its website (www.viajes2000accesibles.es) “contain added value for disabled users.”
The CEO explained how the staff at Viajes AcceSIbles “pay inspection visits to all the hotels offered on the website, checking for accessibility. This way, we can guarantee that all the products and programmes available for groups or individual travellers are fully accessible.” “What’s more, reservations can be made in different ways, based on our knowledge of the needs of disabled travellers,” he added.

Future Challenges
According to Cortina, the challenges to be faced by Viajes AcceSIbles in the next few months will have to do with “increasing our travel offer at both the national and the international levels” and “reaching disabled users across Europe.”
Last spring, Viajes AcceSIbles became a member of the European Network for Accessible Tourism, ENAT, whose second international conference was held in Vienna a couple of months ago. Created in 2006, ENAT sought to be a tool for those individuals and organisations interested in accessible tourism. Currently, the network has about 200 members in 30 countries around the world, who want to make tourist information, means of transport, transportation and services more accessible as a response to the needs of disabled travellers.