Introduction

Accessible tourism is gaining momentum across many different areas and activities within the tourism sector for both its inherent sensibility as a human rights issue and for its growing recognition as an important contribution to the economics of triple bottom line sustainability amid the general recession. This collection of accessible tourism best practice chapters is the companion volume to the first book, Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues (Buhalis & Darcy, 2011). While Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues sets out to explore and document the current theoretical approaches, foundations and issues in the study of accessible tourism, the focus of this book is on policy and best practice, reflecting the ‘state-of -the-art’ as expressed in a selection of international study chapters. In the following 24 chapters, the invited authors from around the world relate how the paradigm of accessible tourism is increasingly influencing tourism policies and taking form in a multitude of tourism settings and offers.

This book bears witness to the many faces and perspectives of accessible tourism. It can be portrayed – and can be understood – from a number of perspectives. Typically, innovative developments in tourism take into account the roles and views of different stakeholders, including policy-makers, construction, tourism providers and visitors. In this respect this book is no exception. It is also evident that, increasingly, accessible tourism is not only about providing access to people with disabilities, but is also about creating universally designed, barrier-free environments that can support people who may have temporary disabilities, families with young children and the ever increasing ageing population, as well as creating a safer environment for employees to work (Darcy & Dickson, 2009).