Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; v. 3, n. 17/18 (2012); 1387-1401
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Resumo: Stress negatively affects modern society’s health conditions, diminishing people’s daily performance and, thus, their quality of life. Disabled persons are probably more exposed to different and more intense stress-inducing circumstances, which cause even more severe instability within these individuals’ mental, psychological, emotional and even physical resources.Evidence shows that leisure involves a sense of freedom and personal development, revealing its potential for stress control, inducing positive emotions, social interaction and coping (Folkman and Moskowitz, 2004). As tourism is recognized to have a long-term positive impact on tourists’ quality of life (Neal et al., 2007), frequently associated with stress-reduction, we decided to study these intrinsic aspects of the tourism activity for persons with isabilities.This paper aims to clarify stress-inducing circumstances for disabled people and to explain how tourism may act as a stresscoping tool in this population. For this purpose, first a literature review is presented and then results from focus groups discussions, obtained in the context of an exploratory study on disabled individuals’ participation in tourism, analyzed.
