EfVET team members had the opportunity to disseminate Tour4All Erasmus Plus project during the EfVET 26th Annual Conference which took place on the last week of October.
Two roundtables sessions, each of 30 minutes, about Tour4all project were organised during EfVET Annual Conference. The goal was to introduced EfVET delegates into the subject of the project: develop of curricula on Accessible tourism for VET tourism Courses.
When asked about what is the first idea that comes to their minds about “Accessible Tourism” participants said that might be expensive (due to the equipment needed to fully enjoy this experience) and lack of training of tourism professionals. Indeed, that was the reason why this project was born, because project partners believe that better trained human on this domain would make the tourism experience more enjoyable for all.
Intellectual Output 1 results were presented, where a survey was sent and answered by 18 different organisations. The main findings showed that the capacity of tourism professionals to make tourism packages accessible is really bad, and that the skills and know how to deal with people with special needs or with disabilities are really poor.
The results of the survey guided the development of the Intellectual Output 2: an e-platform where an online module would be available for students of tourism who would like to complete their competence on this subject.
The participants shared good practices from their home cities, such as from Fuerteventura where there is an association which helps people with mobility problems to practice surf, or another one including people with disabilities or special needs on the hospitality management in the Basque Country. However, teachers or VET representatives within tourism courses in their centres they explained that this module would help a lot their students as at the moment there are not such specific curricula for Tourism Students.
After the pilot testing, the e-platform would be open for broader testing and guidelines handbook for teachers will be developed.
If you would like to test the e-platform online please write an email to the project coordinator: projectcoordination@espe.pt
www.tour4all.org
