Tourism for all - B-FREE Destination
The B-FREE Destination, Interreg Austria-Hungary project aims to promote barrier-free tourism in the border region, including language barriers, by creating methodologies for the development of shared barrier-free tourism supply and demand, carrying out pilot activities, and raising awareness.
To make tourism services accessible to disabled and elderly people, special infrastructure is necessary. The project also offers training for service providers who are prepared to meet the needs of the disabled tourists. Therefore, awareness-raising and sharing experiences are also major parts of the project. The expected results shall have an impact on the tourism habits of disabled and elderly people, while at the same time encouraging the organisations and individuals who help them. The project will produce technical material that will be a useful source of information for organisations, local authorities and businesses that are interested in developing accessible infrastructure and services.
As an important interim result of the project, Austrian and Hungarian partners tested a pilot activity, In a collaboration with the project BaNEx. They organised a cycling tour for young people with disabilities from Bavaria, along with environmental educators, special education teachers, and tour guides from Austria, Hungary and Germany, who cycled together from the Naturpark Rosalia-Kogelberg through Sopron to the Fertő-Hanság Nemzeti Park.
It must also be noted that the project was invited to the event “Capitalising on cross-border bilateral EU projects in tourism” at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy and Tourism, where the representative of the Austrian partner, Naturpark Rosalia-Kogelberg, presented the objectives and interim results of the project. It is also a major achievement that the B-Free Destination project has been selected by the expert jury of Vienna’s Tourismusstars as one of the best inclusive tourism initiatives of the year.
Photos: Tibor Laposa, András Vissi
