Barcelona promotes itself as a disabled-accessible tourist destination
- Turisme de Barcelona has produced a video in conjunction with the Institut Municipal de Persones amb Discapacitat showcasing the city’s wide range of resources for the disabled, including museums adapted for blind and visually impaired visitors, accessible beaches and guided tours with interpreters for the hearing impaired.
- The consortium also seeks to raise awareness among travel trade members so that they will take into account the needs of these people when designing their activities and visits.
A video produced by Turisme de Barcelona and the Institut Municipal de Persones amb Discapacitat promotes Barcelona as an accessible tourist destination for people with functional diversity. The film, entitled Easy Barcelona, is aimed at functionally diverse people who are able to visit the city and seeks to convey the message that Barcelona is an open, accessible city with museums adapted for the blind, accessible beaches and guided tours with interpreters, among other resources.
All these elements, including the high levels of accessibility of public spaces, amenities and public transport, make Barcelona particularly attractive for people with functional diversity: a group who represent a higher and higher percentage of the world’s population and are an important potential sector for the economic engine that powers tourism in Barcelona.
The video includes a number of accessibility features and will be available in several languages (English, Catalan and Spanish). Subtitles and sign-language interpretation in three languages have been added (Catalan, Spanish and International Sign Language). Care has been taken to ensure that the voice-over provides all the necessary information to convey the message to the visually impaired.
People with functional diversity take part in the video
People with functional diversity have taken part in the making of the video. Some of the actors and actresses featured are people from the city with disabilities.
The provisional video is already available on the websites barcelona-access.cat and bcn.cat/accessible and on the visitbarcelona Youtube channel.
The general manager of Turisme de Barcelona, Jordi William Carnes, says that “the consortium has detected a growing interest in accessibility regarding tourism in the city, from the point of view of supply and demand. As a public service, it is an area we need to be present in andis also a driver of the economy”.
The tourism organisation has developed a website for people with disabilities (www.barcelona-access.cat) and has created the Barcelona Sustainable Tourism programme, which promotes responsible tourism in the city and includes
accommodation and travel agencies specialising in inclusive tourism.
Barcelona Sustainable Tourism is a program created by Turisme de Barcelona which is comprised of more than 20 tourism stakeholder businesses who are committed to offering visitors a more sustainable way to enjoy their city.
Contact information
Joana Homs
Tel: +34 934 921 424