Accessibility of Tourist Offer in Republic of Croatia to People with Disabilities

Abstract

The aim of the research paper is to identify the need of adaptation of tourist facilities to people with disabilities in Republic of Croatia as a tourist destination. Tourists and travellers with disabilities want to be equal members of our community and enjoy all tourist facilities just like other healthy people, although they are often restricted due to the inadequacy of tourist facilities. The paper analyses different tourist offers, amenities and infrastructure in order to assess its level of adaptation to people with disabilities in the Republic of Croatia. Research methods carried in this paper are historical, analysis, synthesis and empirical research conducted as a quantitative data analysis of a questionnaire distributed to people with disabilities on the sample of 200 disabled people from Croatia. The results of the research indicate that significant improvement should be implemented regarding suitable tourist offer in order to satisfy needs of tourists with different types of physical disabilities in Republic of Croatia. Based on the research results authors provide numerous recommendations to be implemented in Croatian tourist sites.

Turizam bez prepreka u Mađarskoj i Hrvatskoj

“…This study draws from sources focusing on the present and future of barrier-free tourism in Croatia and Hungary (Bunja, 2003;Ernszt et al, 2019;Farkas & Petykó, 2019, 2020Farkas et al, 2022aFarkas et al, , 2022bGonda & Raffay 2020a, 2020bGregorić et al, 2019;Morić & Marinić, 2017;Raffay & Gonda, 2020). Most findings (Eichorn & Buchalis, 2011;Farkas et al, 2022a;Polat & Hermans, 2016;Zajadacz, 2014) write about the difficulties of disabled people in a hotel, or in a restaurant.…”

“…Due to the limited availability of data, the qualitative research approach of this study is based on researching and investigating studies from the approximately 50 papers and reviews specifically recommended by the available literature and data (World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), International Labour Organization, 1998;United Nations, 2022;Law on Croatian Citizenship, 1991; National Strategy for Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities). Statistical researches, representative and nonrepresentative ones (Daniels, 2005;Farkas et al, 2022b;Gonda et al, 2019;Gonda & Raffay, 2020a, 2020bGregorić et al, 2019;Zajadacz & Lubarska, 2020); website analysis behavioural pristupa (Moje vrijeme, 2017;Akadalymentes Nap, 2020;Accessable, 2022aAccessable, , 2022b; https:// wheeltheworld.com/; https://pantou.org/ association-promoting-accessibletourism-no-limits; http://www.updt-nolimits.hr). O podacima koji su relevantni za Hrvatsku studija sadrži podatke dostupnih dokumenata ili studija (Bunja, 2003;Gonda i Raffay, 2020a, 2020bGregorić i sur., 2019;Morić i Marinić, 2017;Raffay i Gonda, 2020).…”

“…com/; https://pantou.org/association-promotingaccessibletourism-no-limits; http://www.updtnolimits.hr). The study contains data on Croatian relevancies through available documents or studies (Bunja, 2003;Gonda & Raffay, 2020a, 2020bGregorić et al, 2019;Morić & Marinić, 2017;Raffay & Gonda, 2020). Regarding the Hungarian data in relation to accessibility, several sources refer to documents in Hungarian.…”

“…The study investigates 14 accessible travel agencies' websites, guided by theoretical frameworks of competitiveness and barrier-free tourism. E-travel agencies offer a wide range of specialised and perfectly fitted products and services with great quality; however, people with disabilities have not trusted all of the information provided by conventional travel agencies (Gregorić et al, 2019;Gonda & Raffay, 2021;Lovelock, 2010). The e-healthcare system leads to an increase of global competitiveness with more visual impairments and social media tools (Altinai et al, 2016;Zajadacz & Lubarska, 2020).…”

“…Barrier-free (accessible) tourism is a highly recognised element of the economy (European Network for Accessible Tourism ENAT; Tourism for All; Županović & Zečević, 2019) and tourism that everyone considers important (UNWTO -World Tourism Organisation), but few studies have been published on the subject (Eichorn et al, 2008;Eichorn & Buchalis, 2011;Gregorić et al, 2019;Raffay & Gonda, 2020;Runio-Escuderos & García-Andreu 2021). Numerous factors have appeared or have also changed in today's economy, influencing the change-sensitive tourism.…”