tourism for everyone dubai accessible tourism...

Tourism for EveryoneDubai Accessible Tourism International Summit


Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum President of Dubai Civil Aviation AuthorityChairman of Dubai Airports Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group

Journey towards Travel without Barriers

Organised bywww.dubaiaccessibletourism.com

5 - 6 November 2019

2 www.dubaiaccessibletourism.com

Travelling to and exploring tourist destina-tions is often a challenge for the people with disabilities even if they comprise 10

to 15% of the world population.

They find it difficult getting accessible services in their journeys due to challenges like inac-cessible public services, untrained staff and unavailability of adapted and accessible facil-ities like hotel rooms, transportations, airport, airlines, tour operator services and public attractions such as museums, theme parks, malls, beaches, gardens and others.

Accessible Tourism is now a sustainable de-velopment policy and an exceptional business opportunity. Tourist destinations are working to make their tourism products and services accessible to all people, regardless of their physical limitations, disabilities or age.

They are going beyond ad hoc services to en-sure that all persons, regardless of their phys-ical or cognitive needs, are able to use and enjoy the available amenities in an equitable and sustainable manner.

Many are successfully boosting their competi-tiveness by following good practices of univer-sal accessibility, adopting smart technologies, developing policy framework and strategic

actions aimed at making accessible tourism a reality for the differently-abled and people with physical limitations.

Few countries have adequate mechanisms in place to respond to the needs of people with disabilities, with embarking on a holiday being a world of challenges.

According to United Nations, the impact of accessible tourism goes beyond the tourist beneficiaries to the wider society, engraining accessibility into the social and economic val-ues of society.

After remaining vastly untapped and under-served, Accessible Tourism has now become an ongoing endeavour. It has to be: over a billion people in the world are experiencing various disabilities.

Journey towards Travel without Barriers

3Dubai Accessible Tourism International Summit

According to Lonely Planet, 50 percent of peo-ple with disabilities would travel more if suitable facilities were available to them wherever they travelled. Studies show that around 88 percent of people with a disability take a holiday each year.

In the US, an estimated $17.3 billion is spent by adults with disabilities on travel each year. In North America alone, people with disabilities spend more than US$13 billion each year on travel. In Australia, around $8 billion a year is spent by travellers with disabilities.

Around 12 percent of the European market is dedicated to people with disabilities. A Euro-pean Commission study estimates that while the accessible tourism market across Europe is comprised of potentially 138 million people, only half of these are regular travellers, they contrib-ute an estimated €150 billion in revenues an-nually. There are currently more than 11 million disabled people in the UK and the spending power of their households – ‘the purple pound’ - is approximately £250 billion. About 50 million people with disabilities reside in the Middle East region.


With an estimated one in eight people worldwide living with a disability, travel-lers with disabilities now make up one

of the fastest growing tourism markets. At least 54 per cent of people with access requirements avoid going to new places if they cannot find them accessible to them. People with access needs have many of the same travel desires

and behavioural patterns as other travellers, but they face barriers with access needs to enjoy tourism experiences.

Accessible Tourism is about making it easy for everyone to enjoy tourism experiences. Making tourism more accessible can boost the compet-itiveness of a destination.

Fastest Growing Tourism Market


Dubai, already the globe’s second most-vis-ited tourist destination, has added power to the efforts through an initiative aimed at

making the emirate disability-friendly by 2020, in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council.

Dubai Strategic Plan 2021 outlines the commit-ment towards making life easy for people with disabilities. As Dubai inches towards becom-ing the world’s most-visited global destination, accessible tourism tag will sit perfectly well in its enterprising endeavours. Dubai has an ambitious tourism strategy to attract 25 million visitors by 2025.

The 1st Dubai Accessible Tourism International Summit has been designed as a platform to un-derstand the socially-relevant, business-oriented subject in its totality, and discover accessibili-ty-to-all could improve the tourism businesses as more and more people are exploring the world. Based on the above, we believe it is high time to come forward and join the march for a better future for all.

Dubai as an Example


On the sidelines of the summit, there will be an exhibition of a comprehensive range of products and services for people with

disabilities, offering a meaningful platform to see and experience the best products.

Exhibition

The summit’s debate and discussions will focus on topics like:

Dubai as a Model: A City for EveryoneAccessibility as a sustainable tourism policy Making Public Transportation Disabled-Friendly Inclusive Healthcare DestinationsAccessible Tourism Destinations and AccommodationsAccessible Cities – Strategy and PlanningPolicy Development for Making Cities Accessible to AllTechnology and Accessibility ToolsMedia and social media - Highlighting the Needs of Travellers with Disabilities and Influencing travel DecisionsPredicting for tomorrow’s accessible tourism

Main Topics


A whopping 50 million people with Special Needs in the Middle East are looking to visit cities and tourist destinations that provide appropriate services to them as per their needs


2How to do the front line staff orientation to deal with customers and tourists with

disabilities?This workshop will be for the front line staff to develop a consumer-friendly approach in handling customers with special needs in areas such as airports, rail, cruises, buses, infrastructures, transportation and communications means, education, medical tourism, banking services and qualified human resources capable of dealing with them, among other equally important related issues.

They will learn from the best practices on how to overcome challenges and change the mind-set and understanding insights into the minds of people with abilities including a sign language training.

1How to be a leader in accessible tourism?There is a lack of competence regarding the

proper treatment for people with disabilities in many areas of service provision.

Tourism has been no exception to this situation. These workshops will help fill in the vacuum and better organisations and its senior man-agement be a good examples and a beacon of hope.

This will help the senior management, devel-op leadership qualities which will encourage empathy for disabled, these qualities to be communicated to staff at all levels within the organization.

Workshops

The Summit will feature workshops for the tourism industry players, to be addressed by experts, to increase the capacity of personnel working in the tourism and hospitality industries, especially the frontline staff.

The workshops will cover important subjects such as:


Distinguished speakers from across various fields have been invited to address the summit.

Distinguished Summit Speakers

The summit will bring together international organisations, government authorities and organisations from different countries and experts to share the achievements of their cities in developing projects in different areas including infrastructure, transportation, civic bodies,

tourism and medical tourism, aviation, banking and financial services, along with accessibility solution providers and qualified human resources experts capable of dealing and supporting more than 180 million tourists with disabilities worldwide.

Why the summit? Why should you not miss it?Tourism for People of

Determination has remained largely untapped despite vast technological advancements and innovations in the way they can explore the world

Assuming 15% of the world’s total 1.2 billion tourists faced with disabilities, it is huge potential market as they spend three times more than the normal tourists

A platform with multi-di-mensional benefits for your company/organisation to express/display strong association with People of Determination.

A wonderful opportunity to enhance your company/organisation’s share through reaching out to People with Disabilities

Be your company/organi-sation seen as a strong supporter of the governmen-tal efforts to make life better for this segment of our society

Meet government minis-ters, decision-makers, social

influencers and other crucial market players for networking and professional benefits

The summit takes forward the mission of enabling People with Disabilities enjoy the world of tourism, with the governments, tourism bodies, travel industry players, urban planners and others working in tandem

The summit is a step towards moving further in determining what the people with disabilities requires

Help the tourism industry to get the right strategies and programmes in place

It will be an ideal platform to know how technology and innovation are getting better to make the life easy and more accessible

A timely platform to net-work and share strategies and experiences and under-stand the market needs and expectations.

Government ministers, representatives from international

organisations, officials from law enforcement agencies and departments and agencies involved with projects/programmes relating to people with disabilities, voluntary bodies leaders, top officials responsible for the procurements from vendors and manufacturers of technologies and systems, media representatives, city planners and travel and tourism officials.

Who you will meet at the summit?


In 2016, a mind-boggling 180 million tourists with Special Needs visited cities that are friendly and accessible to them



Tourists with Special Needs spend three times more than ordinary tourists in their journeys


Contact usP.O. Box: 182173, Dubai, UAETel: +971 4 256 6707 Mobile: +971 50 272 0029E-mail: [email protected]: www.dubaiaccessibletourism.com



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