Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; v. 3, n. 17/18 (2012); 1417-1430
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Resumo: The experience of tourists with disabilities still presents a relatively incipient field of research, while the understanding of their needs and expectations, as well as of travel inhibiting factors and of those eventually enhancing their participation in tourism is of foremost importance.This article is part of a PhD research project about the above-mentioned topic. Here, the main results of a preliminary study, based on in-depth interviews with qualified informants of organisations working with and for the disabled population, are presented. The main objective of this preliminary approach was to clarify conditioning factors of tourism participation and to identify the most relevant constructs and dimensions that might summarize and permit a better conceptualized view of these factors conditioning this particular population’s group participation in tourism activities.The results, obtained through a confrontation of literature and empirical results, permit to identify a set of inhibiting and facilitating factors, associated with the participation of persons with disabilities in tourism, while simultaneously helping to suggest some strategies of adaptation, useful to overcome the difficulties encountered, as well as some aspects to consider that might improve the destination experience of travellers with disabilities.
