President of ACCESSIBLE PORTUGAL, Ana Garcia is also a Member of the Board of the European Network for Accessible Tourism, as a representative of Portugal.
We spoke with Ana Garcia about how Tourism, a strategic activity for Portugal, can also be a factor in regional development, by boosting a multiplicity of areas and agents that, in a transversal way, must work in a network and contribute to an “All for All” tourism.
How does a financial manager, auditor and business analyst of investment projects become the promoter of Accessible Tourism in Portugal, which seeks to strengthen the rights of People with Disabilities and their families?
There are many turns in life, and it is important to be open to change, to whatever makes sense in our path as a person, with a mission to accomplish.
My entire journey in the financial management area leveraged the work I do today. Nothing is ever lost! I was still at IAPMEI, where I worked, with great pleasure, for 18 years, when I learned that a project, Accessible Portugal, had won an award [Editor’s Note: INOV 06 Award]. I fell in love and wanted to participate. The will and involvement grew and, in 2007, I made a conscious decision to change my life and embrace this challenge… which has never ceased.
How was the first tourist agency specializing in the Accessible Tourism sector born?
It was born after a successful initiative by a tourist entertainment company, and in order to be able to offer a wider range of products and services to clients with motor disabilities.
What led you to create the Accessible Portugal brand, aimed at a public with special needs?
The need to address a market gap while leveraging the rights of people with disabilities and their families. The idea has always been to give visibility to people with disabilities, from a perspective of inclusion. By qualifying tourist territories and destinations to receive clients and visitors with specific needs, we are, first and foremost, qualifying these territories for those who live there. This is an added benefit of tourism: improving the quality of life of the locals.
In your words: “The world is a global one, the age of tourists is increasing, and it is necessary to create conditions so that everyone can travel safely and with the quality they need to enjoy their destinations. It is a question of responding to the needs of the market and also a question of ethics”. Was it based on this assumption that you started developing Accessible Portugal's mission?
The aging process naturally brings motor, auditory, visual, and cognitive limitations. By preparing our tourism offer to receive people with these limitations, we are expanding the range of responses to accommodate a greater diversity of clients. The desire to travel continues throughout life, but situations of severe limitations/disabilities grow exponentially with advancing age. Thus, preparing a tourist offer that respects the various limitations resulting from this aging process naturally brings a market opportunity.
Accessible Portugal's mission has always been to find the best solutions to leverage the qualification of responses at the destination, to ensure that people have better quality, safety, dignity, and autonomy.
Why are equipment, tourist operators, and hotel and tourist animation agents still poorly prepared to receive customers with special needs?
The scenario has been changing drastically in recent times, in a positive direction. There is a greater collective awareness, both for reasons of ethics and social responsibility, as well as the need to respond to a changing market.
What role can the courses offered by the schools of Turismo de Portugal play in training and raising awareness of the topic of Accessible Tourism?
They have been playing a pivotal role, as they signal a strategic commitment to the theme and demonstrate consistency with the provisions of the Tourism Strategy until 2027 (ET27).
Do you think that the opening of an Accessible Tourism helpline, by Turismo de Portugal, is an experience that should be repeated, since currently there seems to be a greater awareness of these supply needs in the market?
Yes, definitely. I believe it will be, soon. Within the scope of the Valorizar Programme, the applications dedicated to Accessible Tourism are a clear commitment of the National Tourism Authority. Other project applications for any investment in the sector must be compelled to meet accessibility requirements for all. There can be no public funding for projects that do not comply with this approach. Accessibility issues are increasingly mandatory.
What is your assessment of the degree of employability of people with disabilities in tourism and culture?
It is still scarce. All these changes are part of evolution processes and not isolated situations. By increasing the tourist offer to receive clients with specific needs, naturally opportunities will be opened up for employees with disabilities. From the point of view of the image of tourism resources to its customers, it is important to mention the impact of a staff that includes employees with disabilities. However, training must add value for students with disabilities. The focus should be on valuing each person's capabilities and not on exacerbating deficiencies.
As a consultant and trainer, you have been promoting accessibility and qualifying the accessible tourism offer through various projects. In addition to courses, does Accessible Portugal also organize accessible events?
Yes, we organize events and activities as part of the projects we develop. The aim is to qualify people with disabilities to participate in activities, thus helping the offer to understand their needs. There is also the demonstration that it is not always difficult to have accessible activities, and that the expectations of people with special needs are very low, easy to satisfy, and even surpass.
How do you assess today the results of the BRENDAIT - Building a Regional Network for the Development of Accessible and Inclusive Tourism project, aimed to be a dynamic driver of a progressive transformation of the territory into a more accessible and inclusive tourist destination?
Distance allows us to have more reliable information on the project's results. In fact, BRENDAIT allowed us to verify that territories advance at different speeds and that each tourist resource does too. The management of these differences ensures that no one is left behind. We learned that a proximity methodology is encouraging for the adherence and openness to the topic of accessible and inclusive tourism. There are still many associated stereotypes, for example, that accessible tourism equals tourism for people with disabilities, which in turn equals tourists in wheelchairs. There is still a long way to go!
In 2018, you launched TUR4all, a platform and mobile application for information and dissemination of the accessible tourism offer in Portugal. What does this project mean to you?
TUR4all represents the fulfilment of the response to an identified need: to provide correct, up-to-date, and trustworthy information about the accessibility conditions of tourist resources, so that visitors can, in a responsible way, make their own decisions. It is a tool with immense potential. The idea behind this initiative was to customise to Portugal and improve a tool that already has many differentiating and useful features for people with accessibility needs, so that they can plan their trips and journeys, knowing in advance the accessibility conditions of the places to which they intend to go.
The big difference with TUR4all is its reach (Iberian platform with seven languages), and the fact that it does not subjectively classify tourist resources as “accessible”, “not accessible” or “partially accessible”. The information is objective. Accessibility needs are quite different, depending on the type of disability, age, whether the trip is made independently or accompanied, etc., etc. TUR4all passes the onus of choice to the tourist/visitor. He or she determines whether or not a given tourist resource has the appropriate characteristics, in a given context and according to criteria that are known only to the person traveling or their group of companions.
The tourist offer is responsible for providing correct, up-to-date, and trustworthy information so that the client can make his/her decision consciously about what he or she will find at the destination. It is also a stimulus for continuous improvement in the accessibility conditions of tourist resources and destinations.
In addition, TUR4all allows us to have a consistent approach methodology, tested and applied in Portugal and Spain.
The Tourism Innovation Centre and the Accessible Portugal Association published GuestAccess, a free webapp developed with the support of Turismo de Portugal. What is its goal and how does it work?
GuestAccess is another tool, mainly dedicated to Tourist Accommodation professionals, so that they can quickly and directly access tips on how to serve and welcome clients with different types of specific needs. A bet in gamification, through quizzes, to help people memorize small solutions that can make all the difference in the stay of a client. It also has some short videos with cartoons that leverage access to content on good practices of accessibility and inclusive service.
You are also involved in the AccessTUR – Centro de Portugal project. Among the beneficiaries of this project are three founding municipalities of the Historical Route of the Lines of Torres (Arruda dos Vinhos, Sobral de Monte Agraço, and Torres Vedras). How do you see the qualification of tourism supply and demand in these territories and their state of development in promoting accessible tourism and social inclusion?
That ‘mega’ project has been a huge challenge and has-given us the opportunity to work a territory with an extraordinarily rich and diverse offer. The theme allows us to go far beyond physical accessibility, as many of the places of origin of the Lines of Torres have physical access conditions for people with reduced mobility. The AccessTUR allows for, in a way agreed between these three municipalities, some tools to work in the scope of accessible and inclusive communication, including information on multi-format, that is, the information to be transmitted to visitors must exist in alternative formats and be suitable for different disabilities, such as visual, hearing, cognitive or intellectual disabilities. In this sense, information was prepared in simplified writing, in Braille, in Portuguese Sign Language, in tactile images, in 2D and 2D relief1/2, in the audio description of visual images, etc. AccessTUR also advocates networking between the various partners in the territories in order to allow for scale-up in tourism products and allows access to professional training in inclusive service skills. Accessible tourist information guides will also be prepared for the various sub-territories of the region, as well as in an aggregated way, through the collection of more than 440 TUR4all technical visits, among many other project activities.
To reach this market, which includes public with specific characteristics, what path should the Historic Route of the Lines of Torres follow?
Continue to be willing and believe that this is a holistic, transversal and mandatory approach, one of the pillars of tourism sustainability, and that in an increasingly aging population, but with an ever-greater desire to visit and travel, to prepare the offer for Everyone is a matter of intelligence, ethics, social responsibility and positive differentiation of destinations.
The RHLT is sensitive to creating conditions for greater accessibility and inclusion of the public who visit its heritage. Currently, it is involved in several projects of this nature, namely in the Historical Route of the Lines of Torres project: Community and Sustainable Tourism, supported by Turismo de Portugal, which aims at implementing a heritage education program and at creating resources and tools for a more “friendly heritage” for all people. What advice would you give us, considering that a considerable part of our heritage is located in inaccessible places, by its very nature a huge challenge already?
Creativity is the limit. There are several ways to make accessible heritage that was built not to be accessible (precisely the case here). What is not an option is to destroy the authentic and original in the name of accessibility. People with physical limitations or different types of disabilities do not want this! There are ways to create solutions, and RHLT has been exemplary in this matter with the requalification works carried out, with alternative formats, with support materials. You can also invest in technical aids, such as all-terrain wheelchairs, Joëllete chairs, with virtual tours, augmented reality in the more inaccessible places, with models and weapon replicas, among many solutions. An inclusive service will always be essential, asking people how they can improve, and being open to continuous improvement and networking with the various partners.
Improving the accessibility of tourist information, means of travel, infrastructure, and the preparation of services for tourists with all kinds of needs, is for the RHLT a fundamental commitment. What models and best practices do you recommend to surmount this challenge?
The greatest tool is training. No one can like what they do not know. Without a notion of the functional diversity of human beings, of how to receive well due to physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities, it will never be possible to find creative solutions that respond to the needs of these people and their relationship groups. It is important to understand that the person with the greatest vulnerabilities will always be the decision maker of the group/family/friends, if an activity can be done, and if it will or will not be done. The more inclusive the offer, the greater the responsiveness it has, the more expectations these audiences will overcome, and a virtuous cycle will be generated, where solutions will emerge and the enthusiasm to be able to provide inclusive answers to more and more different people will be the engine of continuous improvement.
You are on the right track! Thank you all…
