Tourism and Disability: An Economic and Managerial Perspective (Tourism on the Verge)

This book addresses existing challenges and opportunities related to tourism for people with disabilities. A niche market that is largely underdeveloped, its potentials are also often underestimated. It examines the strategies, policies, and initiatives – at regional, national, and international levels – to foster the development of accessible tourism for people with disabilities. It does so by examining the different social, cultural, legal, and information/interactive barriers that represent important constraints to welfare, inclusion, integration, and promotion of civil rights, which bring difficulties and detriment to tourists with disabilities. Additionally, the book analyzes the characteristics and dynamics of that portion of the tourism industry that is more oriented to meet the distinctive travel demand of people with disabilities. In doing so, the book explores how preferences for travel services and facilities of people with disabilities differ from preferences of tourists without disabilities. All these issues are addressed from both a theoretical and a practical perspective by adopting a multidisciplinary approach, which leverages from the fields of management, economics, and statistical analysis. The book can be useful for a broad audience made of both researchers and practitioners (among which tourism companies and corporate trainers) who are expected to deal with the topic of tourism management. Acknowledgments 6 Contents 7 Introduction 9 References 12 Disabilities and Accessible Tourism: Recent Development and Future Directions in Management Studies 13 1 Introduction 13 2 Research Methodology and Empirical Design 14 3 Data Analysis and Findings 16 3.1 Step 1: Sample Selection and Initial Data Statistics 16 3.2 Step 2: Bibliometrics and Visualization of Similarities Among Publications 17 3.2.1 Co-authorship 18 3.2.2 Keywords Occurrence 20 3.2.3 Co-citation Analysis 21 3.3 Step 3: Topic Modeling and Textual Analysis of Publications 22 4 Conclusions 31 References 32 Part I: The Demand Side of Tourism for People with Disabilities 36 The Determinants of Length of Stay of Italian Senior Tourists 37 1 Introduction 37 2 Post-Covid-19 Perspectives for the Senior Tourism Market 38 3 Definition of Senior Tourists 39 4 Contributing Factors of Senior Tourists ́ LOS 40 4.1 Socio-demographic Variables 40 4.2 Variables Related to the Individual Life Cycle 41 4.3 Variables Related to Tourism Motivations 41 4.4 Variables Related to Travel Features 42 5 Data 44 6 The Model 44 7 Results 48 8 Conclusions 52 References 53 Tourism Flows in Italy: The Role of Local Public Policies Toward Disability 57 1 Introduction 57 2 Data 60 2.1 Sources 60 2.2 Main Patterns 63 3 Empirical Model 66 4 Results 67 4.1 Main Results 67 4.2 Additional Results and Robustness Checks 69 5 Discussions and Conclusion 72 Appendix (Figs. 4, 5, and 6) 74 References 76 Accessibility of Cultural Sites for Disabled People: Some Preliminary Evidence from Sicily 78 1 Introduction 78 2 The Institutional Setting. The ``State of the Art ́ ́ Looking at the Current Situation 82 3 Accessibility of Cultural Sites: Some Preliminary Evidence from Sicily 84 4 Results 86 5 Conclusions 88 References 90 Part II: The Supply Side of Tourism for People with Disabilities: A Context-Based Perspective 92 How to Improve Universal Accessibility of Smart Tourism Destinations: The Case of Amsterdam City 93 1 Introduction 93 2 Theoretical Background 95 3 Amsterdam: The Exemplary Case of Smart Tourism Destination 100 3.1 The Service for People with Disabilities 100 4 Conclusion 103 References 104 Gender and Disabilities in the Tourism Industry 107 1 Introduction 107 2 Theoretical Background 109 2.1 The Multidimensional Diversity 109 2.2 An Overview of the Literature 109 3 Discussion and Conclusion 114 References 116 Social Farms in Support of Local and Accessible Tourism 119 1 Introduction: Social Tourism 119 2 An Overview of Accessible Tourism 120 3 Accessible Tourism: The Quality of Accommodation and of Hotel and Non-Hotel Hospitality 121 4 Rural Tourism and Accessibility 124 5 Conclusions 127 References 128 Part III: The Supply Side of Tourism for People with Disabilities: A Tools-Related Perspective 131 Tourism for All: From Customer to Destination after COVID-19 132 1 Introduction 132 2 Tourists with Access Needs: Features and Numbers 133 3 Destination for All: New Strategies for Post-Covid Tourism 138 4 Research Method: Case Analysis of Bibione Destination 145 5 Conclusions 152 References 155 Tourism for Disabled Travelers: Breaking Down Barriers Through Network Interactions 157 1 Introduction 157 2 From Disabled Tourist to Accessible Tourism: A Literature Review 159 3 Digital Platforms and Their Contribution to Remove Barriers 164 3.1 The Mission 167 3.2 The Offered Services 168 3.3 The Way they Gather and Update Information 169 3.4 The Network 170 4 Conclusions and Implications 172 References 173 Eco-Innovation as a Tool to Enhance the Competitiveness of ``Tourism for All ́ ́: The Italian Project ``Turismabile ́ ́ 175 1 Introduction 175 2 Theoretical Framework 178 3 Methods and Data 180 4 The Case Study Context 182 4.1 Turismabile Profile 182 4.2 Piedmont Territory 183 4.3 The Tourismabile Project 183 4.4 Turismabile Website 184 5 Discussion 185 6 Conclusions 188 References 189 Conclusions 191 References 195