How VisitFlanders Built One of the Most Accessible Destination Ecosystems Jem Golden
Jem Golden
Sessional University Lecturer/Tutor, Strategic Research Consultant, Analyst/Writer
A special thank you to Professor Jessica Jacobson for her insights on accessibility and to Katrien Mampaey, VisitFlanders
Implementing inclusion - a cornerstone policy of VisitFlanders for over 20 years
Ghent, a city in the Flanders region, Belgium is distinguished for its extraordinary art heritage, medieval architecture, rich food and artisanal beer traditions. The city together with other major cities, towns and coastal resorts in the region have been hugely committed to being accessible to visitors since 2001. Led by VisitFlanders the destination marketing organisation (DMO) that works to develop tourism and visitation to the northern, Flemish area of Belgium that includes Flanders Fields.
The VisitGhent website similar to the tourist websites of the other major cities – Bruges, Antwerp, Leuven is emblematic of this commitment with an all-encompassing vision and implantation of accessible holidays. The information is easy to find and to absorb; it is detailed, reassuring, and welcoming.
One of the crucial points of VisitFlanders access plan from its inception is that visitors with access requirements should have access to the same facilities and services as other tourists, and not be exclusively relegated to specially adapted social holiday centres.
In this way, any holiday destination should be accessible for anyone. The concept is to benefit not only to people with disabilities, but also the elderly, young families with children and low income families. In short, one must strive to increase comfort for all.
For example, Ghent provides free of charge pushchairs that are compact and manoeuvrable. They have a large carry cot and the children sit at eye-level. You can borrow a pushchair and only need to hand in an identification document and pay a deposit as a guarantee. It’s so simple and so stunningly helpful.
In the first of this series of articles on accessible travel without barriers a key concept I put forward was - accessibility for all visitors - and I advised strongly to the destination not to characterise people with disabilities (PwD) as ‘niche’ but rather to cater for people of all abilities as part of their standard travel industry planning, infrastructure and operations.?
It needs to be made clear to visitor destinations that genuine inclusion (within tourism, as within other sectors) requires an understanding that populations aren't neatly divided between those with disabilities and those without - but comprise individuals with varying types and levels of ability and disability.
VisitFlanders accessibility mission began (and continues) by auditing accommodation
I talked to Katrien Mampaey team leader of the VisitFlanders 'quality' team responsible for accessibility and also family friendliness, youth tourism and sustainability. Katrien, an outgoing and hugely well-informed advocate for accessible solutions:
“It is so often the case that people with disabilities (PwD) within travel sector but more widely as well, that they are the ones that are told they have to adapt, whereas of course it is the other way around. The environment has to be adapted and made universal. Here at VisitFlanders, we always start with and aim to apply the Universal Design concept which is the very opposite of ‘otherness’. It means PwD, mothers with pushchairs, much older visitors are all included and feel comfortable,” explains Katrien Mampaey.
In the early days of VisitFlanders accessibility action plan the focus was on the hotel industry and in that process of auditing the hotel accommodation infrastructure , randomly sampled in Flanders, Mampaey says “It was an eye opener to say the least. How many of our hotels were accessible for wheelchair users? Not one!” This audit process includes. includes screening of all necessary facilities of an accommodation, such as parking, entrance, reception, restaurants and bedrooms.
I will analyse hotel universal (re)design in more depth in a ‘case study’ article on Vienna.
A grant structure to incentivise businesses to be accessible
VisitFlanders made substantial grants available to cover a proportion of costs for hotels to redesign their public areas as well as a proportion of bedrooms .
Flanders has a wealth of historical heritage including castles, cathedrals, breweries and museums; it is also known as a heaven for cycling, the paradise of beer. ?For subsidy projects related to this tourist products, VisitFlanders always expects at least basic accessibility criteria to be met as a condition of receiving financial support.
Based on Statbel's preliminary annual figures show that 13.7 million domestic tourists and from abroad visited Flanders in 2022, around 70% more than in 2021 as the region began to recover momentum approaching the pre-Pandemic levels for visitors.
Flanders Fields war centenary broadened scale of accessibility
Flanders experienced among the fiercest, most devastating battles of World War One (WW1) including the Second Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Passchendaele in 2019.
More than 600,000 civilians and soldiers were killed in Belgium alone during the war and the conflict continues to affect Flanders and its society today. Edward Berger’s recent masterpiece film All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) vividly evokes the carnage of the war in Flanders.
The hundred year centenary of the battles in Flanders Fields gave VisitFlanders further incentive to broaden the scale of accessible venues in anticipation of two million visitors over the four-year period; including a relatively high number of people with physically and sensory impairments.?This included not only museums, war cemeteries, churches, parks, hiking routes but also trenches such as the ‘Yorkshire Trench and Dug-out’ accessible to people in wheelchairs to experience the same as everyone else.
After Flanders Fields, the accessibility focus shifted to the Flemish Coast and the art cities of Bruges, Mechelen, Leuven and Ghent.
?A transparent, prestigious accessibility label
Pieter Ghijsels, Policy Advisor for Accessibility to VisitFlanders is legendary in the accessibility travel world. In May 2020 Pieter gave a Webinar as part of a series of Masterclasses of Inclusive Tourism.
…” We have an (two-tier) accessibility label which is very highly valued by the sector because it is not easy to get. There is a commission representing the hospitality sector and also people with disabilities, and the assessment is always based on an independent poll on site and the criteria are strict,” says Pieter.
Clear, reliable information is essential. For persons with disabilities, this can be a determining factor in whether they decide to go on holiday. ?A and A+ labels indicate the accessibility of holiday homes, information and visitor centres.
“So that makes it really worth something and that’s why our sector like to obtain this label. Also we have to let VisitFlanders know if anything structural has changed after a year and a new audit takes place. Hotels are always doing renovations and you don’t know if the accessible bedroom is still functioning.”
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An accessibility label was also designed for Meeting Incentives Conferences Events (MICE) venues.?A meeting venue can distinguish and certify itself with the protected label 'accessible meeting infrastructure'. The label, which exists in three levels, guarantees to meeting and convention organizers that a building is accessible to all. The label contains criteria not only for wheelchair users, but also for people with a hearing or visual impairment.
M: basic accessibility: some extra help and effort may be required
M+: very accessible
M++: excellently accessible
The label shows at a glance what your customer can expect. For people with disabilities, such information is decisive in deciding whether or not to attend a conference or meeting.
Critical barriers to accessibility are still present in Flanders
All the innovations for accessibility highlighted above should not obscure the barriers that still exist for PwD in the region, not least in the critical area of transportation. A recently published research by Neven and Ectors analysed in-depth a range of structural, policy and planning issues in Flanders that place PwD at a huge disadvantage..
Neven and Ectors conclusions showed that barriers of persons with a physical disability were mainly related to the inaccessibility of the public domain, public transport vehicles and stations/stops, the lack of awareness in society (by policy makers and public transport drivers), limited social networks, an insufficient transport supply, the booking period and procedure, and financial aspects.
The research paper concludes that transport companies (in Flanders) should be obliged to develop a global action plan (including a concrete timetable that allows for the monitoring of the gradual changes made) to ensure the integral accessibility of the network for all. The expansion of accessible rolling stock (e.g. by purchasing new vehicles) should be continued and reinforced, and technical development in the field of accessibility and comfort for PWD should be applied as much as possible.
Accessibility is not about trying for perfection, it’s about making progress
Both Katrien and Pieter strongly emphasise the need for tourism and hospitality service providers including hotels, cultural venues, museums and so on to be as honest as possible and transparent in communication.
“When you know it is not fully accessible say so in much detail as possible and then the visitors can decide if it is doable or not. There is nothing ‘wrong’ to highlight any deficiencies in accessibility and it is says something positive about your mindset and how you wish to support your visitors. The most important thing are the changes you are doing as a business so that PwD can enjoy a holiday like everyone else,” Katrien concludes.
The Sources Consulted for Article
Interview Katrien Mampaey
Katrien LI Profile: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/katrienmampaey/
Pieter Ghijsels Webinar Masterclasses of Inclusive Tourism
Improving Accessibility in Belgium Hotels, by Jane Edwards
“I am dependent on others to get there”: Mobility barriers and solutions for societal participation by persons with disabilities by Neven and Ectors published in Travel Behaviour and Society 30 (2023) 302–311
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214367X22001156
The Mapping of Skills and Training Needs to Improve Accessibility in Tourism Service an European Case Study 18. Visit Flanders’ Accessibility Training, Belgium
All Quiet on the Western Front – 2022
Director Edward Berger - https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81260280
VisitFlanders Accessibility:
https://www.visitflanders.com/en/travel-information/accessibility
VisitFlanders Accessibility Labels:
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1 年Awesome. I love it
Owner; Dementia Care Educator, CDP; CADDCT; CMDCP at New Dawn Dementia Understandings
1 年Great article. We need to start allocating and spending a portion of research dollars on viable ways to be a dementia inclusive society.
Senior Market Insight Consultant | Strategy and Insights
1 年Thanks for sharing this Jem! Accessibility assessment should be embedded in the urban development and planning across the globe, it's vital to have a level playing field for all especially when it comes to travel.
Senior Head of Travel and Tourism Research at Euromonitor International
1 年Thank you Jem for creating an accessible travel series, and for sharing this excellent case study of Flanders that continues to lead from the front. You mention some vital points about building travel products and experiences for everyone from the get-go. Looking forward to following your series!
Founder of tabiLabs Inc
1 年That was incredible. Thank you for sharing.