Policies and practices of accessible tourism in Europe: a case study of two municipalities in Italy and Portugal

Tourism must be considered a right of all citizens, even when this presents challenges to politicians and all those who wish to enjoy the several segments of tourism and leisure activities. Studies in the scope of accessible tourism have grown since the 2000s,especially in the European continent, where 87 million people with disabilities live. This paper aims to evaluate the potential of accessible tourism (AT) in the municipalities of Esposende (Portugal) and Desenzano (Italy) because of their geographic similarities and because both municipalities have included AT in their own strategic planning. Additionally, we propose the creation of an AT network for the two municipalities. Consequently, we developed an original evaluation grid (with 158 variables) supported by official Portuguese and Italian documents. Thirteen points of tourist interest were evaluated in Esposende and 12 in Desenzano del Garda in 2021. Among the 158 variables, external access, accessible bathrooms, location and orientation, communication capacities, security and emergency systems and access to beaches scored the highest. The fieldwork was complemented by 1014 photographs recording the points of tourist interest in both municipalities. According to the results, in Desenzano, the axes “external access,” “bathrooms” and “security and emergency systems” were revealed to be more accessible than those of Esposende. We conclude that despite the existing European standard for the accessibility of tourist sites, there are still significant differences in its application across the member states and among the AT sites.