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Publication
Accessible Tourism in Russia: Recommendations for a Universal Design, Barrier-free Environment
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Abstract(s)
Recently, barrier-free tourism has become increasingly important. The number of people with disabilities around the world is growing. Most of these people want and can travel. But not all countries and cities have a sufficiently adapted environment for comfortable movement. The purposes of this master’s thesis are to research accessible tourism in the cities of the Russian Federation, determine the problems that people with disabilities face in Russia during travel, understand how the lack of an available environment affects the desire to travel. The principles of universal design are also discussed in this work, and special attention is paid to how these principles should be followed in the tourism industry. In addition, define what changes will be the most effective in developing an accessible environment and will be able to lead to an increase in the number of disabled people as participants in tourism.
This study is based on semi-structured interviews. The questions for the research have been prepared after an extensive analysis of the current state of the theory. The research was performed among people with disabilities who use wheelchairs or their caregivers. The experiences of twelve participants were evaluated.
The analyses of the interviews identified several challenges that the participants were dealing with. These findings provided a clearer understanding of the problems currently being experienced by the study group. They also helped address a number of outstanding research questions.
To sum up the findings of this research, the availability of an accessible environment is a crucial factor when choosing a holiday destination for people with disabilities and their caregivers. The developed accessible environment gives people with disabilities a sense of freedom, independence, and makes them equal members of society and motivates them to choose new places to travel. Thus, creating a barrier-free environment might play an important role in attracting new visitors and become a serious competitive advantage among tourism companies.
Description
Keywords
Inclusive tourism People with disabilities Accessible environment Universal design Wheelchair users Travel motivation