Portugal Tourism Board was awarded the first international distinction of Accessible Tourism Destination (ATD2019), launched by UNWTO and the ONCE Foundation to recognize those destinations that are making laudable efforts so that they can be enjoyed by all tourists, regardless of their physical, sensory or cognitive abilities. In the last decade, Portugal has made outstanding efforts to make its tourism infrastructure, services and products more accessible nation-wide.
“This award is a great impetus for Portugal to become the most inclusive destination in the world”, underlines Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho. In Europe alone, there are 90 million tourists with specific mobility needs, “so this distinction is very important to position Portugal as a leader in accessibility”.

In 2016 the All for All program was launched, with the aim of enabling the Portuguese tourism offer and creating accessible itineraries throughout the country. According to official data, to date 116 projects have been supported, representing an investment of 20 million euros.

The Tur4All portal was also presented, which allows to know the hotel, restaurant and culture offer for people with specific mobility needs in Portugal and Spain.

In Tourism schools, a module dedicated to accessible tourism was included and, in addition to the Beach Accessible program, the Accessible Festival was presented in 2019, which aims to distinguish events that present accessibility conditions for people with specific needs.
The More Access program will support accessibility promotion projects in about 50 municipalities, with a total value of 15 million euros, in addition to conducting global surveys of accessibility conditions of the public building.

Source: UNWTO