Elisa Alén González

Activity of older tourists Understanding their participation in social tourism programs

A global demographic shift is leading to an increasing number of older citizens, particularly in the most developed regions, and social tourism is becoming growingly relevant throughout Europe, especially in Spain, where it has been successfully developed by the Institute for Elderly and Social Services (IMSERSO) programs. The aim of this study is to create a profile of older tourists according to the types of trips they make. It uses a multinomial logistic regression to rate older citizens according to their motivation, travel, and sociodemographic characteristics. Results show that older tourists prefer organized trips regardless of whether they travel on IMSERSO trips or any other type of package tour.

Website accessibility in the tourism industry: an analysis of official national tourism organization websites around the world

Abstract Purpose: To analyze the accessibility of official national tourism organization websites of countries around the world, in order to establish possible common patterns and rankings of those with exemplary practice through to those with the highest number of issues. The purpose for undertaking such an analysis is to provide a quasi-indicator of inclusive organizational practice for online accessibility for both destination managers and their accessible tourism consumers – domestic and overseas people with disability visiting the websites. Method: The official tourism websites of 210 countries included in the latest World Tourism Organization report were analyzed. A website accessibility evaluation tool (website accessible test) was used in the analysis, according to AA and AAA levels of conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 requirements. Results: Different patterns compliance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 were established for the clusters, which were rather similar for both AA and AAA conformance levels. The main issues in the least accessible websites were also identified, mainly focused on the following guidelines: navigable, compatible, adaptability, text alternatives and also referred to other assistive technologies. Conclusions: Once the main issues were established several alternatives are suggested to address them, such as implementing more prescriptive laws and regulations, complying with mandatory benchmark standards and/or having external agencies audit website designs. However, in addition to using benchmark standards, efforts to improve this situation should also be made by programmers, who should also rely on preexistent experiences and develop more dynamic knowledge. This knowledge may include text alternatives for any nontext content; creation of content that can be presented in different ways without losing information; provide ways to help users navigate, find content, determine where they are and navigate websites to maximize compatibility with assistive technologies and user agents. Implications for rehabilitation Access to information – in this case, online information – is an important factor in the process of rehabilitation for people with disability and those supporting them. Failure to apply homogeneous criteria for website accessibility around the world can hamper access to information by people with disabilities. Travel planning requires access to mainstream tourist distribution networks where online inclusive practice is a precursor to information searching. Documents for destination managers and programmers the main problems of accessibility to websites and examples of models or solutions to follow and not. Establish the main inclusive website design criteria on which to focus on improving the access of people with disabilities to websites (e.g., text alternatives, content presented in different ways, navigating and improving compatibility with assistive technologies etc.).

Accessible tourism online resources: a Northern European perspective

ABSTRACT Increasing market opportunities have been identified for accessible tourism as a result of improved quality of life. Disabled tourists tend to be loyal, spend more and enjoy longer stays in their destinations, although their behaviour obviously differs from one country to another. This situation is strongly influenced by the welfare policies that determine the disability model implemented and affect the extent to which disabled people are integrated into day-to-day. Northern European countries are regarded as champions in this respect. When disabled people travel, access to information is important. Information is present throughout the tourism process, not only as a communication and marketing channel, but also as a transmitter of experiences. This study seeks to establish whether the policies and regulations that govern disabled people’s access to online tourist information are applied correctly. The official tourism websites of northern European countries were analysed to this end; whereby different patterns were identified regarding their compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The atypical features of Norway’s official tourism website were found to be particularly noteworthy, as were the official tourism websites for Germany and the United Kingdom, two of the countries with the largest market share of accessible tourism.

The Role of the Internet as a Tool to Search for Tourist Information

The internet has become the main tool to search for information. This is particularly the case for the tourism industry, where online searches are becoming increasingly popular. The ongoing growth of e-commerce has ruptured the existing relationship with the old management information systems and products. Given the vast range of available information, search and meta-search engines have become key elements in gaining a competitive advantage and establishing differentiation strategies within the sector. This paper aims to compare tourism e-commerce search engines and meta-search engines based on website structure and content. It analyses the main attributes and categories found to create clusters and a ranking from which to compare the position of search and meta-search engines from the perspective of the supplier, as opposed to that of the traditional consumer market preference. This paper will contribute to the industry by providing valuable information for best management practices about the tourism websites structure and offering, and determining factor in implementing successful strategies.

Termalismo y turismo senior

El termalismo es para Cunha (1997) el producto turistico mas antiguo del mundo. Sin embargo, no debe centrarse en las practicas del pasado sino integrar las costumbres, habitos y preferencias actuales, esforzandose por una constante adaptacion e innovacion. Es por ello que el concepto de termalismo del futuro debe asentarse en un enfoque de salud y bienestar ampliando de este modo su oferta de servicios. Bajo este enfoque, los balnearios deben intentar atraer a esa masa de clientes senior cada vez mas numerosa, que se encuentra en perfecto estado de salud y que acude al balneario buscando tratamientos terapeuticos especificos o con la finalidad de pasar unos dias agradables y descansar. Las actividades de ocio ocupan un espacio fundamental dentro del tiempo de los mayores y constituyen un elemento clave para prevenir la dependencia, garantizando un envejecimiento satisfactorio (IMSERSO, 2008). Segun Grande (1993) las personas mayores muestran actitudes favorables hacia nuevos productos y servicios; son consumidores expertos, pues poseen una gran experiencia adquirida a lo largo de toda su vida, por lo que adoptan nuevos productos cuando realmente estan convencidos de su utilidad; no son reacias a las innovaciones; el riesgo percibido es un factor de freno a la adopcion, por lo que las empresas turisticas, en este caso en el ambito termal, deben demostrar racionalmente las ventajas del nuevo producto turistico