EuForMe - Tourist training for a wider target

[adina]

I am so glad we have the forum.....

Does anybody have the dates of our meeting in Luxembourg?

adina

[RasmusTFAsweden]

Finally I got this thing working....I think

The dates of the meetings in Luxemburg were between the 1:st and 3:rd of June. But we had no special program the first day.

So, now I shall find two new members to our forum or what did we agree on?

I am sorry if I seem confused these days but I am experiencing some problems in Sweden - nothing serious, but time consuming.

I will look around some more in the Forum and see if I get it.

Bye bye now (smileys are fun!)
_________________
Rasmus Isaksson
Tourism For ALL in Sweden

[Francesca]

Hi Rasmus!

I just read your first message in the Forum...great!
I wish to congratulate with you for your home page on the website you mentioned: good photo, interesting information etc etc.
I have just a question: have you already written the book on travelling of people with reduced mobility??? Which themes and aspects did you consider??

I look forwrd to hearing from you,
Francesca

[RasmusTFAsweden]

Thank you.

Right now I am experiencing some difficulties with my homepage. I added a new picture gallery with a few pictures from the conference in Luxemburg but for some reason the pictures wont upload correctly.
That is why I have been so slow updating it lately. But I am trying to fix it.

Now, about my book. I am still working on it and have been working for it for some time now. I am working slowly because I am doing a lot of other things at the moment and my book-writing is just something I do on the side. But it never gets old. And of course I have to find someone to publish it. I do lectures about travelling in a wheelchair and those lectures are usually very appreciated so I have good hopes for this book.

The idea of this book is more focused on inspiration than as a guide book or general information about accessibility. I think there is always need for more information about accessibility but I believe a lot of young people in Sweden with a disability choose to travel within sports or choose to travel with charter because it is much easier. I think there is a step before information about accessibility and that is inspiration. Otherwise my fear is that young people go to where it is most accessible and not where they really want to go. My hopes are that more young people with a disability choose to travel more like non-disabled young people do. To show that it is possible.

The book is not only meant for young people but also for other gropus with reduced mobility, friends, families with children with a disability, tourist agencies, etc.

The book will contain a lot of pictures. Also it is a way of describing my philosophy of travelling. That it is important to meet people from other countries and cultures. And it is important for them to meet you.
And so on.. To change attitudes.

I hope that the book also will open a door to other ways of inspiration like tv-programs about travelling and for example in brochures from travel agencies where they could have someone in a wheelchair on one of their pictures from a tourist resort.

I want to share my experiences from travelling without getting lost in measurements and other kinds of facts. The idea of our project, as I understood it, is also to show hotels, tourist resorts, agencies and so on that this kind of information should be available. That is why I do not really think it is necessary to include all the facts about accesibility about the hotels I stayed in during my travels, in my book. When we are done with our projects it should be the hotels´ responsibility and not ours (although the reality is that we need those kinds of guides of accesible resorts at the moment but hopefully not in the future).

That is a little bit about my book.


Did you find the e-mail adress to Andra? I checked with the e-mail she gave me and it seemed the same as yours. Maybe her inbox is just full or something.

Now I am off to bed. Take care..

// Rasmus
_________________
Rasmus Isaksson
Tourism For ALL in Sweden

[RasmusTFAsweden]

I forgot

I also write about what drove me into travelling. What do I gain from travelling?

I would say it is the same kind of things that once drives me into sport activities:

1. Becoming more independent. Learning how to rely on myself and a way to find out what I manage by myself and learn not to be afraid to ask for help. If I travel by myself these kinds of problems will emerge and I am forced to find ways to overcome the problems.

2. I am growing as a person and I get more confident when I travel like any other young person.

3. I meet a lot of people. Espacially when I am travelling on my own. More people contact you if you are travelling on your own and you have more reasons to contact others.

4. Changing attitudes. In many countries I have been to they do not even think of disabled persons as tourists. Also many hotel owners react and feel sorry for their poor accessibility and promise a change.


These are examples of what I can gain from travelling. What I get in return. that is something I am also writing about in my book.
_________________
Rasmus Isaksson
Tourism For ALL in Sweden
_________________
Rasmus Isaksson
Tourism For ALL in Sweden

[Mette Ripa]

Hello everybody!

How are you all? I hope you are good.
I´m so sorry I clouden´t be there with you all in Luxemburg.

It´s good that this forum is here now!

By for now
Mette

[RasmusTFAsweden]

Thank you all for a nice conference in Malaga. I hope we can continue the discussions on this forum.


_________________
Rasmus Isaksson
Tourism For ALL in Sweden

[Andra Emrich]

Hello to everybody,

I hope, I got this thing working...

I`m so sad that I can´t join the last meeting in Malaga with you all.
I had a pneumonia, but now everything is great again.

Could anybody please give me a view about the important news from the youth panel?
What are our next tasks for example?

I´m looking forward to see you all in Assisi again..

Bye Bye Andra

[RasmusTFAsweden]

I am glad that you feeling better. I will update you on the notes I made from the meeting in Malaga.
I hope someone else will correct me if I am wrong or add the things I forget.

The first thing we spoke about was some problems with the newsletter.
It is important to:

1. Link to the right adress (see that the news is still there when the newsletter is published)

2. Keep it short and translate if needed.

3. Think about the quality

One axample of a good story is short travel tips. It is suppose to be about experiences about the lifes of disabled people or about travelling for disabled people.

We also agreed on visiting this website twice a week. We also decided to meet here every monday at 4 pm to see how things are going. I do not know why but so far I have only met Sonia here at that time. I have no idea where the rest are.

During our first session in Malaga we had the students sitting down with us and discuss. For the most part the youth panel just listened to their views on accessible tourism and their ideas and what they have learned so far and also what they would like to know more about.

They wanted to have more economical insight, more facts from studies studying the economical power of disabled people. And they wished to have more training tools.

One big discussion was the question we all need the answer to: How to work with the owners and politicians to start invest on accessible tourism. Shall we focus on the law and claim our rights or shall we bring up the economical facts?

We also spoke about how it is important that you can make a change. Adina told that before women could not travel alone because the hotel did not have ladies rooms. Today a lot of women travel alone on business as well as on tourism.

It is also important to know that accessible tourism is good for EVERYONE. Not only disabled people. Elderly people for instance.
And it is important to inspire young people to travel. It is always hard to open up a business that has once been "closed" for a group. The changes may not come right away. One way is to include disabled people in commercial and brochures (travel guides). I think it is just important to show on pictures that disabled people are welcome without having to mention in specifically in the text. That way it just melts in. Do you understand what I mean? We should be a natural target group for the tourism business and not a group that needs to be welcomed specially, if you know what I mean?!. Although this is not the same as having specific information about accessibility. That is important and should always be standard. I mean there is a lot you can do to attract this "new" target group to tourism but so far too little has been done.

We also spoke about the chain on tourism. Transport, Hotels, Events, Restuarants, Sightseeing and so on. The most important thing is to begin with hotels. Once disabled people has somewhere to stay we show that we wants to become a part of that tourist resort and that might have a "domino-effect" on the accessibility of that region.

We spoke about the architectual (maybe wrong word) revolution. The frist one I already mentioned about making it accessible for women. The same thing happened to the car industry when more women started to buy their own cars. Now we have to do the same.

It is also good to be a good role model. And one training method to make people understand what accessibility does for us is to have them sit in a wheelchair themselves or put a scarf over their eyes so they can´t see. It is always easier to imagine the problems that way.

Day 2. 1. Introduction
2. Dissemination Plan a. translation if necessary b. send to all
3. Final Presentation in Assisi
4. Scheduling
5. Evaluation
6. Planary report


Important dates:
15:th of April -> Questonaires will be handed out -> report

1:st of May -> Deadline for Questonaries (all partners)

15:th of May -> Report

20:th of May -> Approval from the Youth Panel

1:st of June -> PowerPoint-presentation

10:th of June-> Distribution of the oral presentation (everyone has to
speak)

16:th of June -> Meeting about the presentation in Assisi

If I remember correctly the dates in Assisi are 16-17 of June.

I hope I managed to give you the most important notes but in case I forgot anything I hope that someone else can fill in.

Anyway, hope to see you in Assisi.


Best wishes, Rasmus
Tourism For All
Sweden
_________________
Rasmus Isaksson
Tourism For ALL in Sweden

[Andra Emrich]

[color=blue]I'm so sorry for answering to you after such a long time. Thank you so much for your detailed comments. I had much trouble here and a had no chance to go online in privacy, just at work - and so I had not so much time. OK anyway I hope you would be so kind and answer another question from me. What about the power point presentation? Should the youth panel members prepare something for assisi or just one of us? I have no idea...
With best regards, hope to see you in assisi!!!
See you soon...
And I promise to answer you this time prompt..
Andra

[RasmusTFAsweden]

That´s Ok. Nice to hear from you!

I think I recall from the discussions in Malaga that everyone should give an oral presentation in Assisi. But I got the program today and it looks like this is not the case. I think Chris was going to speak. I haven´t looked that much in the program yet because I haven´t got time. Did you get it or shall I send it to you?

So I think we should prepare to contribute in some way but I don´t really know how yet.

I will tell you as soon as I find out. Unless the plane crashes you will see me in Assisi - weather you like it or not! (really hate flying!) hehe. J/k

I hope to see you in Assisi too.
_________________
Rasmus Isaksson
Tourism For ALL in Sweden

[Andra Emrich]

Nice to read this sentences and see that another has problems with flying and get such a face..
So if my plane will not be kidnapped by terrorists we will meet in assisi
I received the programme yesterday later too and saw that Chris should prepare something.
I wrote him a e-mail but hey, he hadn't got a clue
So let's see what will happen there...
Andra

[RasmusTFAsweden]

We will see what happens.

Yes, flying is in some way a handicap for some people. Last trip to Malaga was hard. Even though the flight went smoothly I got a bad headache. So I spent a lot of time resting in my room. It has perhaps something to do with my disability or it might come from my fear of flying.
I am not very afraid of terrorists. I don´t like turbulence.

Anyway, it will be fun once I get to Italy (safely on the ground).

By the way, I have drivers license now and a car so I could drive you!

Just kidding...it´s safer for you to fly!
_________________
Rasmus Isaksson
Tourism For ALL in Sweden