Mélange Accessibility for All Magazine October 2020 | Page 49

ENAT NTOS ’ LEARNING GROUP Established on the initiative of some National and Regional Tourism Organisations , brings together public sector executives working on accessible tourism policy , strategy , business support and marketing . These members , who represent the “ cream ” of Europe ’ s public bodies in accessible tourism , come together to share experiences , build a common understanding and set concrete goals for innovation and improvement in accessible and inclusive tourism . I am convinced that working side by side with the public bodies involved in the promotion of tourism is essential to share and develop a unified vision on how the tourism offer should be shaped to meet requirements and expectations of visitors and to plan together the most convenient and workable strategies to reach the goal .
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT This represents another important area of intervention that ENAT promotes , linked to the improvement of the human resources skills in welcoming tourists with specific access needs and how to make this added knowledge beneficial for the tourism enterprises . Through our participation in several outstanding EU-financed projects we now have a wealth of online and face-to-face training offers which can be useful to smaller and larger tourism enterprises wishing to qualify their services and the quality of their offer . ENAT members are ready to support training initiatives both in Europe and further afield .
JOB OPPORTUNITIES We have recently completed a study for ILO , on the job opportunities for people with disabilities in the Tourism sector . Tourism , once stabilized again after the COVID19 crisis , offers an incredible opportunity for employment to people with specific access needs . These human resources can make the difference in the tourism services by combining the technical skills to the personal experience they can put into the relationship with customers . In comparison with the timid , but constant opening of the tourist system to package “ accessible ” products , an element not to be underestimated in the offer of a quality product has been largely taken for granted : the ability of the human resources , who operate in the “ mainstream ” tourist area , to understand , use and manage all elements , both technical and behavioural , which identify a correct relationship between the service providers and a customer with disabilities .
The possibility to enter a paid job is not only a right recognised by the Convention on the rights of people with disabilities , but could have also beneficial effects on the whole system of the tourism offer by :
• increasing the quality of the service offered by providing a peer-to-peer relationship with customers with specific needs
• being able to have a better understanding of the requirements to be met
• being able to improve the offer to make it more inclusive and efficient
What are ENAT ’ s consistent challenges ? The main challenge is still the lack of a “ destination ” vision at all levels . There are many initiatives from different bodies , both public and private to improve and give visibility to the initiatives and results of single components of the tourism service chain ( hotels , restaurants , cafes , museums , green areas , etc ) but an overall destination strategy will involve agreeing on a roadmap and plans that will have a medium to long-term time frame .
There are many declarations , manifestos and documents at the European level , both from