Authors: Evangelia Kasimati, Paris Ioakeimidis

Title: Accessible tourism in Greece: What is the current status?

Abstract

Abstract

Accessible tourism is a new emerging segment of tourism in Greece, as well as worldwide, related to the tourist activity of disabled people and elderly age groups. Travelers with disability and elderly people have their special needs when engaging in tourism. This paper attempts to present the existing status of the accessible tourism in Greece. More particularly, our research focuses on the travel needs and barriers faced by people with disabilities in order to evaluate the current accessibility level of the Greek tourism industry, as well as the quality of infrastructure, tourist services and products offered to disabled and aged people throughout the Greek tourist chain. For this purpose, questionnaires and interviews with experts involved in the Greek tourism industry are undertaken and a quantitative analysis is used to present our results. Whenever it is possible, our results are compared with those of other academic studies, conducted for Greece or other similar tourism destinations. We expect our findings to extend the existing limited literature by providing safe and valid conclusions for the Greek accessible tourism, as similar academic research has not been conducted before.

Keywords: Accessible tourism, disabled and elderly people, Greece, tourism sector