Donnerstag, 27. Juni 2013

Tourism for All Conference

The fourth tourism for all conference - IV Turismo para todos -  is currently taking place in Avila, Spain, a medieval city and first ever winner of the Access City Award.

So far it's been mostly about "for All", but "Design" is sorely missing! From my point of view – I didn't get here until the afternoon of the first day - the instances when design was mentioned can be counted on one hand:
  • A brave attempt to explain the Design for All approach by EIDD President Finn Petrén when he chaired the policy session on the first evening, 
  • a wake-up call from Prof. Simon Darcy, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, talking about the experience economy and how the design of tourist services, and finally
  • Peter Neumann, who highlighted the fact that we are currently stuck with "Accessible Tourism", but need to move on towards "Tourism for All". 
When we talk about Design for All, we mean just that. An environment, a service, that is designed to work for all who wish to use it. Attractive, easy, enjoyable - with all the benefits attached to these attributes: economic opportunities, design challenges and an inclusive society.

Conference and view of the city walls